Boulder Market Meals: Classic Nicoise salad showcases summer green beans

Market Meals is a collaboration between Boulder Reporting Lab and the Boulder County Farmers Markets, featuring weekly seasonal recipes built around ingredients from local growers, ranchers and food producers. Find it in Nibbles every Tuesday and on Boulder Reporting Lab. Sign up to get Nibbles in your inbox.

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There are many traditional philosophies that have espoused changing the way we eat as the weather changes — most commonly Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. These practices promote cooling foods in the summer and warming foods in the winter to balance the body’s internal climate.

Eating with the seasons inherently encourages this balance. Summer items like leafy greens, tomatoes and fruit are most often enjoyed raw. In fall, we enjoy peppers raw but also roasted. By winter, we eat squashes and heartier root vegetables that must be cooked.

If you’re getting tired of the countless “light” and “fresh” recipes involving a bowl of greens, Nicoise salad is the perfect main dish antidote. The classic French recipe incorporates filling proteins and the brightness of summer flavors, including green beans, which are just arriving at local farmers markets.

Nicoise Salad

• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 anchovy fillets, chopped
• About 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ¾ teaspoon grated lemon zest
• About ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ¼ pound small red potatoes
• ½ pound thin green beans, trimmed
• Small radishes, trimmed, cut into wedges
• Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 2 small cans water- or oil-packed tuna, drained 
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, halved 
• ½ cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper and flaky salt, to taste
• Garnish: Torn fresh basil leaves, dill
• Optional: capers

Make a vinaigrette by combining garlic, anchovy and salt into a paste. Add the paste to a bowl with lemon juice, zest and mustard. Taste and adjust seasonings. Whisk in olive oil and set aside.

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Boil potatoes in salted water. Put potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cooking potatoes until easily pierced with a fork. Add green beans in the last three minutes of cooking. Drain and let cool. Cut potatoes into 1-inch pieces and dress potatoes and green beans with some of the vinaigrette.

On a large platter, arrange potatoes, green beans, radishes, tomatoes, tuna and hard-boiled eggs. Scatter olives on top and drizzle with remaining vinaigrette. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then garnish with fresh basil and dill.

What’s fresh this week? Farmers are bringing green beans, green onions, summer squash, melons, peaches, carrots, radishes, sugar snap peas, fennel, broccoli, fresh flowers, meat, eggs and more to the Boulder and Longmont farmers markets this week.

Visiting the Markets

Boulder Farmers Market

• 13th Street between Arapahoe Ave. and Canyon Blvd.
• 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturdays, April 4-Nov. 21; 3:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesdays, May 6-Oct. 7
• More information

Longmont Farmers Market

• Boulder County Fairgrounds
• 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays, April 4-Nov. 21
• More information 

Have a tip or suggestion? Send your comments, questions and ideas to [email protected].

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