The Best Salad for Lunch With Friends
Are you wondering what is the best salad for lunch with friends? I recently visited a very long-time friend at her new home in downtown Chicago.
She made the most amazing salad for lunch. It was so good that I made a version of the salad for Emma and me the following Monday.
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The Best Salad for Lunch with Friends
This wasn’t just any old salad, it was Salade Niçoise. She served it like a salad bar so you could swap out any of the ingredients and add things that you like to have on your salad.
After some research, I discovered that the original version that was made in France didn’t actually have lettuce. It was served as an appetizer with either tuna or anchovies (not both), tomatoes, niçoise olives, fava beans, cooked baby artichokes, and sweet peppers with a vinaigrette dressing.
The Salad Ingredients for this Version
The salad that my friend served was a more updated version. These were the ingredients.
- Tuna
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Hard-Boiled Eggs
- Kalamata Olives
- Capers
- Red Onion
- Green Beans
- New Potatoes
- Bibb Lettuce
- Homemade Vinaigrette Dressing
As luck would have it I had some broasted new potatoes from our Sunday dinner in the refrigerator so this was an excellent way to use some leftovers. I also had everything but the red onions on hand so I left that out of the salad that I made for me and Emma. The dressing is my version of the original.
“A Sweet Friendship Refreshes the Soul”
– Proverbs 27:9
Other Ingredients
This salad would be so easy to change things up by changing the proteins and adding different ingredients.
- Chicken, Shrimp, or Salmon
- Hearts of Palm
- Shaved Carrots
- Cheeses
- Avocado
- Cucumbers
- Mushrooms
The sky is the limit!
Other Salads
If you’ve been following me, you know that I love salads. Here are just some more of my favorites! If you click on the salad, it will take you to the post.
5 of My Favorite Salads
Pasta & Shrimp Salad
Best Ranch Dressing
Let’s Do Lunch
Dessert
For dessert, we had cut up pineapple and strawberries with biscotti cookies, served in a martini glass. It was so good. All in the presentation.
There is something about lunch with friends that is so special. Spending an afternoon with a good friend is therapeutic. Talking and laughing about life, taking a trip down memory lane, it’s all so very lovely.
Peace,
I have a great conversation this week with the lovely Amy from @thevintagebreadbox.
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The Best Salad for Lunch With Friends
Recipe details
- 4 servings
- Prep time: 1 Hours Cook time: 15 Minutes Total time: 1 hr 15 min
Comments
Share your thoughts, or ask a question!
These are so much fun to prepare and eat. I have subbed asparagus for the green beans, added marinated artichokes, added endive, swapped out tuna for grilled salmon or shrimp - the options are endless. What doesn't change much is the dressing. I have on occasion, grated in some garlic. Just depends on who I am serving and their preferences. Where do you get 8 ounce cans of tuna? Haven't seen that size for a couple of decades except in import stores and typically a European brand packed in oil. What they sell here are 5 ounce tins. And . . . I am preparing lunch for my coworkers in a couple days. Think this will be part of the menu! Thanks for sharing!
Boil water the add water and boil till tender??? You need to proof read before publishing. What other mistakes are there?