This twist on a vegetable salad uses the best of summer garden ingredients. Somewhat similar to a Nicoise Salad, but a handful of different ingredients transports this from the south of France to southern Italy.
The recipe originally came from @healthyandwealthy4life on Instagram. Is it truly Sicilian, let alone Italian? Boh! (Very informal Italian for “I don’t know!” said quite animately). Certainly, the tomatoes, green beans, red onion, olives, capers, oregano, vinegar and oil are Italian kitchen staples.
In the original recipe, no proportions were given but I’ve made it enough — and like it enough — to codify and share it with you. That said, even though I feel my version of the recipe is nicely balanced, feel free to increase or decrease any of the vegetables to your liking. Please, though, don’t skip the oregano — that’s what truly sets this vegetable salad apart from all the others.
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Sicilian Garden Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 3 large or 4 medium waxy potatoes (e.g. Yukon gold)
- 2 large tomatoes, cored and seeded, and chopped into large bite size pieces, or 12 cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 8 oz (half a pound) green beans
- 1 small or 1/2 a large red onion thinly sliced
- 15 green or black olives freshly pitted and chopped in half or quarters
- 2 tablespoons capers rinsed and roughly chopped
- 1 heaping teaspoon of dried oregano (don’t skip this!)
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt (not iodized table salt), divided. More to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
Directions
- Bring four quarts of water and a teaspoon of salt to a boil
- While the water is coming to a boil, scrub and peel the potatoes and cut them into large bite-size pieces. Place them in the pot of boiling water and boil for 6 minutes. Set a timer!
- While the potatoes are boiling, wash and remove the stem ends of the green beans. Add the beans to the pot of the potatoes after the potatoes have boiled for 6 minutes. Set a new timer for 6 minutes and continue boiling the potatoes with the addition of the beans. In this way the potatoes will have boiled for a total of 12 minutes, and the green beans will have boiled for 6 minutes. The potatoes will be done when a knife tip easily pierces through them. Do not over boil the potatoes or they will fall apart in the salad. Place the green beans and the potatoes in a strainer and gently rinse them with cold running water. Set them aside as they continue to drain and let cool
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, white wine vinegar, oregano, the remaining teaspoon of salt and the black pepper. Set aside
- Once cooled, cut the green beans into 1 + 1/2-inch (3 cm) pieces. Place them in a large mixing bowl along with the cut tomatoes, potatoes, capers, and the olive oil and vinegar mixture. Gently toss to evenly distribute the oil and vinegar. Do a taste test to determine if you need to add any additional salt. You may eat this right away, but it is better if you allow it to sit at room temperature for one or two hours. Refrigerate any leftovers
Greg Nelson Cooks 
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