Author Notes
This isn’t a shy salad: It should be a combination of many elements—the seasonal vegetables, a powerful dressing, and a crunchy textural accent. For me it’s the perfect way to repurpose leftovers into something new and delicious, and a great way to avoid wasted food.
You can make this a meal by adding in some leftover protein, like a little poached or grilled chicken or leftover cooked fish. It’s a salad that should never the same because it’s not so much about shopping for the perfect ingredients as it is working with what you have.
The bottarga adds a briny flavor that I love, but you can easily swap that out that with fried croutons or toasted pine nuts, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds, which will provide a crunchy texture. —Sara Jenkins
- Test Kitchen-Approved
- Serves
4
Ingredients
1
clove garlic
1/4 cup
mint leaves
3/4 cup
thick Greek yogurt or labne
Salt
2 tablespoons
red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons
estate-bottled extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound
green beans, trimmed if you want
2
small Persian cucumbers
1
medium fennel bulb
2
scallions, white and light green parts, sliced on the bias
4 tablespoons
freshly grated bottarga (I only use grey mullet bottarga as I have stopped eating bluefin tuna out of concern for the long term survival of the fish, so that includes bottarga made from tuna)
Directions
- Prepare the dressing by finely mincing the garlic and mint leaves and stirring into the Greek yogurt. Add a pinch of salt and stir in the vinegar and olive oil. You should have a slightly runny dressing capable of easily dressing the salad. If it’s not quite thin enough, add a teaspoon or so of water but check and adjust the salt if you do that.
- Blanch the green beans in abundantly salted boiling water just until they turn bright green. Drain and spread in a single layer on a plate or tray to cool. Cut the fennel in half and remove the core, then slice into 1/2-inch pieces. Peel and cut the cucumber into 1/2-inch half-moons. Mix all the vegetables together with the scallions and toss with the dressing. Season with a pinch of salt (go easy because the bottarga is on the salty side) and black pepper, and then grate the bottarga over the salad on a microplane. Serve and eat.
