NICOISE-Style MAIN DISH SALAD
1/2 package crisp salad greens (I used iceberg salad ~ crisp is better than soft because you're putting all the other heavier ingredients on top of it)............................vinaigrette salad dressing (I used light Caesar)
2 hard-boiled eggs per person.....................handful or 2 of cherry or grape tomatoes
about 8 oz. fresh green beans (micro-steamed ~ 3 minutes in about 1/4 cup water, covered, in microwave)
1 large Russet or Yukon gold potato (peel on) ~ thinly sliced and cooked in boiling water until soft
I used about 1 cup leftover pork tenderloin, cut into small cubes (large dice)
1 TB fresh parsley, chopped
OPTIONAL: other things that I'll sometimes add are:
Kalamata olives
capers
1 or 2 small cans of WHITE albacore tuna, packed in WATER (well drained)
thinly sliced sweet white onions
feta cheese, crumbled
***
Put about 1/2 cup salad dressing into a medium bowl. As soon as your potatoes are done, drain them and put the HOT potatoes into the salad dressing. Gently toss so that they're coated with the salad dressing. Add any diced meat that you're using and gently toss that too (I used a rubber scraper). Put aside and let cool for a few minutes.
Put the salad greens in the bottom of a medium-large salad bowl. I put the potatoes in 1/3 on top of the greens. I put the steamed green beans on another 1/3 of the greens (and drizzled a little more dressing on top of them). Then, I cut the hard-boiled eggs in half and put them on the remaining 1/3 of the salad greens and ground some pink Himalayan salt on top of them.
I scattered the grape tomatoes around on top and sprinkled the fresh chopped parsley around. If you're adding capers and/or Kalamata olives, you can scatter them around now too.
(If you're using water-packed tuna, you can put that in with the potatoes ~or~ put all the toppings in 1/4s on top of the greens and give the tuna a 1/4 of it's own on top.)
I put the bottle of salad dressing on the side, just in case not enough dressing made it's way onto the salad greens. Serve from the big salad bowl. This was enough for 2 people.