Vegan Niçoise-Style Salad

Salade Niçoise is a beautiful French composed salad that looks really fancy but is incredibly easy to make. The traditional version is often made with tuna, but here it’s replaced with baked tofu, which makes a great stand-in. And the array of ingredients—white beans or chickpeas, slender green beans, tomatoes, and olives—make it a splendid main dish salad for summer meal, either for busy weeknights or for company meals. Serve with any combination of fresh corn on the cob, a crusty bread, cold soup, or grilled vegetables.

Serves: 4 to 6

• 8 to 10 ounces fresh slender green beans, trimmed (see note)
• 1 large head Boston or Bibb lettuce, torn, or mixed baby greens
• Sliced fresh basil leaves or chopped fresh parsley as desired
• 8- to 10-ounce package baked tofu, diced,
  or a combination of baked tofu and dense herbed tofu
  (if you have extra time, here’s homemade Baked Tofu Teriyaki)
• 1 heaping cup grape or cherry tomatoes, or diced ripe tomatoes
• 15- to 16-ounce can cannellini beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Pitted green or black olives, or a combination
• Marinated artichoke hearts, optional
• Sliced red onion, optional
• Vinaigrette, homemade or storebought, as needed

Steam the green beans just until bright green and tender-crisp. Err on the side of more less cooked rather than overcooked. Drain and rinse with cool water until they’re at room temperature.

On a large serving platter or large shallow serving bowl, arrange the lettuce or greens. Scatter the basil or parsley over it. Arrange the green beans, tofu, tomatoes, beans or chickpeas, olives, and optional artichoke hearts in separated mounds over the lettuce or greens. Top everything with a few thinly sliced rings of red onion, if you’d like.

Drizzle a little vinaigrette over the salad, then pass it around for everyone to dress their individual salads. Serve at once.

Note: If fresh slender green beans are unavailable, use organic whole green beans, thawed and steamed just until tender-crisp.

• Enjoy lots more main-dish salad recipes here on VegKitchen.