Shake Up Your Salad

I love salads, but I get bored quickly, and I get seriously bored with lettuce. So I was delighted to find this recipe in my newest issue of "Everyday Food" - which is probably my fave food magazine. It looked good and sounded good, but the final product WAY exceeded my expectations. I modified it a bit, as usual, so my version is below.

I LOVED it for lunch today. It was light, tangy, fresh, and filling. I could envision this salad at a backyard barbecue, a picnic, church dinner, or just at your laptop for lunch as pictured here :-) It's super quick to make. I forgot to prep it last night before I went to bed, so I had to make it from start to finish before leaving for work this morning, and I still got to school on time!


Here's to summer and non-boring healthy food!!

Tuna & Two Bean Salad
Serves 1, but you can easily make a bigger batch.

large handful trimmed green beans (I bought the nice haricot vert packaged at the grocery)
3/4 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 package white tuna in water (I like the kind in pouches instead of cans)
handful cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup thinly sliced pepperoncini peppers (so good, you have to add them. You can buy them already cut up.)
olive oil
white wine vinegar
salt & pepper

Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Boil green beans for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Pat beans dry, cut into one inch pieces, add place in a large bowl. To the green beans, add cannellini beans, tuna, tomatoes, onion, and pepperoncini peppers. Toss to combine. Prepare dressing by whisking together olive oil, white wine vinegar, and a dash of salt & pepper. If you're serving the salad immediately, dress and toss to coat. If you're packing a lunch, pack the dressing separately and dress the salad right before you eat.

I packed a piece of bread to eat with my salad today, and I didn't even need it because the salad itself was so good and satisfying. It tasted like summer in a bowl. Hope you like it too!