I finally filled my basket this late spring season with leafy greens and colorful carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and radishes (not pictured, because I ate them immediately). All of the recent cold weather made me think that we were skipping spring and going straight into summer, but not to worry. It’s all growing now!

While I did find one huge, over-wintered sweet potato and couldn’t resist the urge to buy it (I love sweet potatoes), I bought all the new produce that I could find. I was so excited to make a fresh, bright salad in honor of these new vegetables. The weather has suddenly turned and become so lovely that I made a quick salmon nicoise salad for brunch and sat outside to eat it. Salade nicoise is a salad that originated in the city of Nice, France. There are many conversations around what ingredients are and are not included in a nicoise salad, but they generally consist of tuna, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, olives and anchovies. Chef Gordon Ramsay calls it the “finest summer salad of all.”

I don’t care for anchovies, and one animal protein at a time is enough for me, so I skipped the egg. I also substituted salmon for tuna since salmon is one of the best fishes out there for you in terms of protein, vitamins, omegas… pretty much everything. Freitas Farms had a few red and green tomatoes for sale, which was wonderful to see; I loved adding that pop of bright red to my plate!

Some recipes will call for raw green beans while others steadfastly believe in cooked green beans, but the only beans that I had on hand, since they’re not growing yet around here, are pickled. My grandmother cans every summer and always gives out jars of peaches, tomato sauce, chow chow (a Pennsylvania-Dutch dish of sweet and sour vegetables) and three bean salad. Three bean salad is a great substitution and serves a dual purpose: you get your green beans on the nicoise salad, and the vinegar also adds a kick that compliments the salmon, and turns up the flavor of the olives.

Salmon Nicoise Salad

Makes one serving

Total time: 6 minutes

In My Basket:

1 cup fresh Spinach (from Tangerini’s Spring Street Farm, Millis MA)

1 Cherry Tomato (from Freitas Farms, Middleborough MA)

4 oz Salmon, cooked (from Jordan Brother’s Seafood, Brockton MA)

1 tbsp Olive Oil (from Fiore, Bar Harbor ME)

From the Pantry: 

1/2 cup three bean salad

1/2 cup kalamata olives

1. Wash and dry spinach. Add to plate.
2. Wash and dry tomato. Cut into quarters or fifths and add to plate.
3. Add beans and olives to plate. Top with cooked salmon (grilled, broiled or baked, I baked mine).
4. Drizzle olive oil over the top for a light dressing. Bon appétit!

Alice Kathryn Richardson is a new media photojournalist and creator of The Clean Food Club. She previously spent two years working on Deserts in the District, a series of short-form documentaries exploring food access and hunger in Washington, DC. She is committed to supporting local and sustainable food businesses by telling their stories with photo and video. Follow her on Twitter @AKR_Pictures.