Warm Provencal Salad

I'll have you know that I rarely turn on daytime TV. But a while back, I think when both of my children were still taking two naps, I flipped on the Rachael Ray show. Normally she bugs me, but I guess at the time I just felt like chillin in front of the tube for a bit.

It just so happens that she had a pretty good recipe she was demonstrating that day. Find the original here. The original contains chicken, but I didn't need to modify it much to make it vegan.

When I cook, I like to have everything mise-on-place, so I can just crank it out when Nick walks through the door. Therefore, I've rewritten it the vegan way below, with my adaptations to make it a bit easier to put together at crunch time. After the prep work has been done (which may take about 30 minutes), it should go together in about 15 minutes.

Also, as its written, it makes a ton - more than 2 adults and 2 toddlers can eat and I don't think it keeps all well as a leftover. I recommend halving the recipe.

This is one our faves:

2 pounds baby white or yellow potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
4 small onions, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
8-10 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2-2/3 cup EVOO, divided
Salt and pepper
1 pound trimmed green beans or asparagus, halved
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup black pitted Nicoise olives
1 shallot, coarsely chopped
A small handful of fresh sage leaves
A small handful of fresh tarragon (or a teaspoon dried)
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 cup flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 cups arugula
1 baguette

In advance:

Slice the onions and potatoes and trim the greens. Nuke the potatoes until they are about 3/4 of the way done. This will dramatically shorten your cooking time. Toss is a bowl with the onions, garlic, a little EVOO to coat. Set aside until approx 15 mins before dinner time. (FYI, if you don't know how to crush garlic, peel off the skin, lay it on the counter and lay the side of a chef's knife on top. Give it a hard whack with the heel of your hand. It crushes easily.)

Set the trimmed greens aside in a different bowl.

In your large serving bowl (it sounds like we're using alot of bowls, but its not really all that bad) combine the arugula, tomatoes and olives. Set aside.

In a small food processor, combine the the shallot, herbs and mustard and season with salt and pepper. Pulse-chop to finely chop the mixture, then stream in about 1/4-1/3 cup EVOO to form a pesto-like sauce. Refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

About 15 mins before you are ready to eat, fire up your broiler.

Place the potatoes, onions and crushed garlic on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and place in the oven. Broil for about 5-10 minutes (depending on how your oven cooks), flipping them to achieve browning on all sides.

Toss your trimmed greens with EVOO to coat and season with salt and pepper. When potatoes are about 3-5 minutes from being done, toss the greens on the tray and allow to broil with the potatoes.

When the veggies are done, add them to the arugula mixture in your serving bowl and toss with the dressing. Serve with a crusty baguette.

Yumm-o (did I just write that?)