My husband Ed and I are huge salad fans. Between the two of us, we probably eat 10 to 15 salads a week—him at places like Republic Gastropub, McNellie’s and West, and me at places like Coolgreens, Zoe’s Kitchen and Chipotle.

Besides the oh-so-tasty Sriracha Hummus Fajita Salad (recipe here), we don’t tend to make salads at home. Because of the toppings involved, it seems like it’s generally more expensive and time consuming to copy our favorite restaurant salads in the comfort of our own kitchen.

We were watching the Food Network or Travel Channel one day (obviously I’m a queen with the details) and saw a recipe for some sort of salad with potatoes and green beans. It peaked both of our interests, so we threw caution to the wind and whipped up a similar salad at home. If you’re familiar with the traditional Salade Niçoise, it’s a lot like that but without anchovies and with a few other modifications.

Three reasons why you’ll love this mess of a salad:

(1) It’s tastier than it is pretty.

(2) You can make most of it ahead of time & throw it together at the last minute.

(3) It gets the husband seal of approval (I imagine it's pretty kid-friendly too).

Check out the recipe below, and feel free to make your own modifications too!

INGREDIENTS

Enough small Yukon Gold potatoes for two people (we did one bag)
Enough French Green Beans for two people (we did one steam-in-the-bag)
6 large eggs, steamed and sliced or chopped
1 bay leaf
1 large thyme sprig
4 garlic cloves, minced with a little salt
1 T. chopped capers
2 t. Dijon mustard
4 T. white wine vinegar
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 t. thinly sliced chives
2 T. roughly chopped parsley
2 T. roughly chopped basil
Parmesan cheese
Spinach

STEPS

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer until the potatoes are firm but easily pierced, about 30 minutes. Remove, cut into quarters and let cool (if you do this ahead of time, you could even put them in the fridge).

2) Cook the green beans, either steaming according to package directions or simmering for 3-4 minutes in salted water. Allow to cool or put in the fridge if you're doing this ahead of time.

3) Boil the eggs if you’d like, but I highly recommend the steaming method! Add six eggs to a metal steamer and add the steamer to a large pot. Add water so that it’s just under the eggs but not touching them. Cover and cook on high for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, but keep the eggs covered for as long as possible (I did this earlier in the afternoon and left them for probably an hour). At the very least, leave them for 10 or 15 minutes. You’ll find that they peel perfectly! Chop or slice after peeling.

4) To make the vinaigrette, stir together the garlic, capers, mustard, vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk well before using.

5) Back to the potatoes—add to a large bowl, season with salt and pepper and pour in half the vinaigrette. Use your hands to toss. Add the green beans, eggs, more salt and pepper and the rest of the vinaigrette. Stir to coat.

6) Add your spinach to a plate and top with however much of the potato/egg/green bean mixture that you’d like. Sprinkle with chives, parsley, basil and Parmesan cheese.