Salade nicoise with crusty garlic bread

  • 40g French beans
  • 2 leaves crunchy Romaine lettuce
  • 50g tinned tuna (drained weight)
  • Quarter of a red pepper, a chunk of cucumber
  • 4 baby plum tomatoes, 30g sweetcorn
  • 1 egg, hard boiled
  • 5 black olives, 2 anchovies (optional), torn basil, chopped spring onion
  • Salt and pepper
  • Hellmans mayonnaise or a little olive oil and white wine vinegar dressing
  • 1 small baguette, 50g butter with 1 clove crushed garlic and some salt mashed into it

Method

 

  1. For the salad: “top and tail” (trim the ends off) the French beans then put them in the pan with everyone else’s to boil for 2 minutes until done but still crunchy (teacher!)
  2. Take your washed lettuce and tear each leaf into four. Add the tuna.
  3. When the beans are cooked and cooled, cut each into 4 pieces and add to the salad.
  4. Halve the tomatoes, slice the spring onion and cut the red pepper and cucumber into chunks, using the bridge method we have learnt, and add these.
  5. Peel the boiled egg and quarter it lengthways. Add this to the salad.
  6. Add the olives, a couple of anchovies (optional), some torn basil and a little salt and pepper.
  7. Add some mayo to your salad or some French dressing (1 tablespoon olive oil mixed with half tablespoon white wine vinegar, salt and pepper).
  8. Now for the garlic bread: Cut slices into the baguette but not all the way down. Spread inside the slices with the garlic butter.  Wrap in foil and bake in a medium oven (200C/Gas Mark 6) for 10 minutes then for a further 10 minutes with the tin foil open, so that the garlic bread crisps up.  Serve warm, with the salad.  Bon Appetit!