Fresh chestnut nicoise

by Charlotte Watts

A Nicoise salad is a tasty classic dish that also incorporates a whole host of cholesterol superfoods and an extremely well-balanced meal, especially with this vegetarian twist, swapping tuna for protein-rich chestnuts.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
250 g small new potatoes in their skins
2 large free range eggs
175 g green beans
1 small red onion
4 ripe tomatoes
250 g leaf salad eg. watercress, spinach, herb leaf and rocket
80 g black olives
1  200g box chestnuts

½ lemon

Black pepper

Dressing:
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
½ teaspoon honey
1 small clove garlic, crushed

Instructions:

1. Boil the potatoes in their skin, drain and leave to cool.
2. Boil the eggs for up to 12 minutes until hard-boiled (depending on how large). Remove from the water and immediately run under cold water, then peel off the shell and slice lengthways into wedges.
3. Trim and halve the green beans and steam until tender – about 8-10 minutes. Run under cold running water and leave to cool.
4. Finely slice the red onion and cut the potatoes and tomatoes into larger slices or chunks.
5. Wash the salad leaves and place in a large serving bowl.
6. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, green beans and olives into the serving bowl.
7. Add together the ingredients for the dressing into a jug, whisk with a fork and spoon or pour over the salad.
8. Season and toss the salad with your hands until all the ingredients are coated.
9. Serve the salad onto four plates.
10. Arrange the egg slices, chestnuts and olives onto the salad.
11. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the salad, season with black pepper and serve.

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