No Blood, No Babies

Our salad days are in full swing, and to celebrate we revived an eternal standard of the garde manger: the Nisçoise. Ubiquitous on the bistro menu, the salad composé of Nice is a meal sized salad anyone can make. Our version is certainly not the spitting image of the forever-popular pile of components crowned with seared tuna. But with the Nisçoise, as with any vegan version of a French classic, deviation is imminently necessary when its current incarnations are so…dusty. In the words of Ian MacKaye “the baby has grown older its no longer cute.”
The cuteness factor for this plate is high as a kite. There are no fillets of sea critters to be found, nor the sterile foul ovum. Fresh and light substitutes abound in caper stuffed kalamata olives (anchovies) hearts of palm half pipes (boiled eggs) and a faux tuna salad, made from the cores of the palm fronds.

Ingredients

2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 Tbs. aged sherry vinegar
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. whole grain Dijon mustard
¼ lb String Beans
4 baby purple potatoes
1 Tbs. Herbs de province
2 Tbs. sea salt
16 pitted kalamata olives
¼ cup capers
1 can of hearts of palm
2 Tomatoes, sliced
1 avocado, sliced
½ hot house cucumber, sliced
1. Heat a large pot of salted water on high heat. Drop the potatoes in when the water is still cold.
2. Peel and mince the shallots and garlic, combine and divide into two separate piles.
3. Place one pile of garlic/shallot in a bowl with the vinegar, whisk in 1 Tbs. of mustard and set aside.
4. If the water is boiling, the potatoes are done. Scoop them from the water and cool off in an ice water bath. Return the water to a boil and blanch the beans for 30 seconds. Chill them out as well.
5. Heat a sauté pan on medium heat. Meanwhile, slice the potatoes into 1/2” thick pieces, like super thick chips. Add one Tbs. olive oil to the pan, count to twenty five and place the potatoes face down to sear. Let them sizzle and brown before flipping. Season each side with sea salt and herbs de province, and set aside when both sides have been browned.
6. Stuff the kalamatas with capers. You can fit between 3 and five capers in each olive.
7. Slice the heats of palm lengthwise down the center. Now carefully peel the outer layer of the heart away. You should be left with a thin skin that resembles the fun part of a water slide…made out of a hard boiled egg…repeat this surgery on all the hearts of palm.
8. Chop the hearts of the hearts roughly and mix with the remaining shallots, garlic, and mustard. This will become your fake tuna salad.
9. Whisk in the 2 Tbs of olive oil into the vinegar and aromatics in a steady stream to emulsify.
10. Toss the salad greens with the vinaigrette, and place in the center of your plates. Scoop faux tuna into the fake egg cradles you’ve crafted. Place sliced tomatoes, chilled string beans, seared potatoes, stuffed olives and sliced cucumbers around the pile of dressed greens.
Beverage: Blanche De Chambly
Soundtrack: Minor Threat “Salad Days”