While I was out grocery shoppimg Saturday, a ginormus head of cauliflower jumped into my basket. I also found a nice red pepper and some very skinny fresh green beans that reminded me of haricot verts. That got me thinking that with Summer almost here, I needed to expand my repetoire of dinner salads for those hot nights when I don't want to spend a lot of time in a hot kitchen. I decided to see if I could make a l/c version of a fauxtato salad that I could expand into a Salad Nicoise later this summer. To make a Salad Nicoise, all I will have to do is add some sliced ripe olives to the dish I call French Garden Fauxtato Salad, serve it on a bed of lettuce with some canned tuna and quartered hard boiled egg and Voila! Salad Nicoise. Here is my recipe for French Garden Fauxtato Salad:

1 large head of cauliflower (about 3 and 1/2 pounds trimmed)
1 pound of fresh green beans
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin julienne strips, about 1" long
5 green onions thinly sliced
Cut the cauliflower into 1/2 inch chunks and steam for 6-7 minutes, until the cauliflower is crisp-tender. Immediately put into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process, then drain and set aside. Trim the green beans and cut in half, or thirds, depending on how long the beans are. Steam the beans for about 3 minutes, until they are crisp tender and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain and set aside while preparing the dressing
Dressing:
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbls dried dill weed
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbls sugar equivalent of A/S (I used liquid splenda)

Put Dijon mustard, garlic, A/S, dill, and cider vinegar in a mixing bowl, blend together using using an imersion blender. With the blender running, drizzle the olive oil into the mixture to create an emulsion.

Put cauliflower and green beans in a large mixing bowl, add the dressing and stir to coat, add the red pepper strips and sliced green onion and toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Henry

Sounds great, Henry! I'm having some folks over for a cookout this weekend, and this is going to be on the menu.

Thanks for sharing.

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sounds delicious Henry! Cold salads are my favorite dinners in summer!

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I just finished the last of the first batch I made 1 week ago yesterday. It held up real well and the flavor seemed to improve with age. With this long of a shelf like in my refrigerator, this salad definitely works well with my preferred method of cooking in large batches to have multiple meals with the leftovers.

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Henry

Henry, this was superb!

Both LC and non-LC guests raved over it. One non-LC guy, one of my kids (Dave), wanted the recipe! The other of my boys (Lee) has read everthing I've sent him and has been pretty much LC for the last couple of years. Lee, having been a chef, figured out pretty much what was in it, so said he'd use it, but didn't ask for a recipe.

Given my supplies, I substituted frozen (and thawed) French cut green beans, replaced the dried dill with fresh, and used jarred red peppers instead of fresh.

It was a big hit. Thanks so much.

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