Tuna and White Bean Salad; the state of the potager

When we lived in MN we used to go to a popular restaurant on the lake we lived on.

In the summer we went by boat, which was a great way to end the day.

Sorry, lost in the memories there for a moment….

Their house salad was justifiably famous. It had a fantastic dressing but my favorite part was the slices of pickled beets, They added both color and flavor.

I am in the unusual position of being forced to buy lettuce (more about that after the recipe).

I found this great combination of lamb’s lettuce, early spinach and slivered red beet.

Why not?

Tuna and White Bean Salad

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 cups (15oz, 450gr) white beans (cannellini), drained
  • 3oz (90gr) tuna, net weight, drained
  • 2/3 cup sliced celery, 1 – 2 ribs
  • 1/3 cup sliced green olives
  • 1 tbs fresh, snipped chives
  • 1 tbs fresh, snipped oregano
  • 3oz (90gr) spring greens
  • Vinaigrette:
  • 1 tbs white Balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbs Dijon-style mustard
  • 3 tbs salad olive oil

Tuna and White Bean Salad

Instructions:

  • Combine tuna, beans, celery, olives and herbs in a bowl.
  • Vinaigrette:
  • Put vinegar and mustard in a small bowl. Whisk well.
  • Add oil very slowly, whisking constantly. 
  • Add vinaigrette to bowl with tuna / beans and stir to combine.
  • Let salad sit at room temperature for 10 – 20 minutes to blend flavors.
  • Arrange spring greens on salad plates, put bean salad on top and serve.

Print Recipe

I am conceding defeat.

A month ago I posted that the ungrateful birds were devastating my potager. They were eating my seeds and my lettuce and my chard.

I replanted the seeds in pots to sprout unmolested and I covered the lettuce and the chard with chicken wire.

For three weeks everything grew nicely….

The Romaine and the chard grew enough that they needed to be uncovered.

They continued to grow….

Every morning I checked.

Every morning they were just a tiny bit taller.

Until last Thursday.

Last Thursday it looked as if someone had taken a large sheers and trimmed the top inch of every plant – evenly.

Last Friday another inch was gone….

I decided to do like the farmers and hang ‘distractions’.

I strung a filmy string between the bean poles and the fence that would wave and reflect in the breeze. I added some tape and discs.

My potager looks like this:

I had hopes….

The next morning they (whatever ‘they’ are) had eaten my parsley almost down to the ground.

I have now put chicken wire over the parsley.

And I am buying lettuce…..

Last update on June 6, 2018

10 thoughts on “Tuna and White Bean Salad; the state of the potager”

  1. LOVE beets in salads! This looks great. So sorry about the lettuce but “they” have to eat too … right, if only they’d leave a little but it never works that way.

    • But Parsley?!? Maybe they thought the salad needed something. Beets are sold cooked, peeled and vacuum-packed here so we eat them often. And pickle them…

  2. Know the feeling. Lost a bunch of herb seedlings to the snails/slugs and now there is some creature that paws my potted plants and digs them up and then leaves them. Chicken wire discourages them until eventually they get too tall, then, once uncovered, they get pawed again. We have a resident weasle and I think that is the culprit, but it could be the skunk that sprayed our dog on Saturday.Never had these problems when we lived in urban Berkeley!
    Your salad looks so delicious. Love that lettuce mix, even if not homegrown…and those delightful slivers of beet! Wonderful.

  3. I finally have my garden. It’s very small. A raised bed with one 8’X2′ section and two 6’X2′, U-shaped, planted with heirloom tomatoes, bush cukes, bush beans, a little dill and some peppers. Surrounded by a 5′ welded wire fence and a chain link gate because the deer here will eat anything. I’ll have to be covering my raspberries soon and have the mesh screening ready for the grapes.

    I feel for you.

    I’ll eat beets on just about anything and if I’d made a bigger garden, I’d have planted some.

    • That’s big enough to get fresh veggies in the summer and not too big to take care of easily. I’m getting carried away lol. But I do like to fill the freezer.

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