Turkey Nicoise Salad and Curried Orzo

School lunches that present themselves in the morning with little effort from me, thanks to dinner the night before, are still a hot topic here. About a week ago, fortune smiled upon me (thanks Chris Nielsen!) as a text with an amazing salad recipe arrived. Even better, a delicious sample followed the text. It so happened that the day fortune smiled was the same day I had already thrown together a simple curried orzo dish. The use of curry was my very modest attempt to honor The Hundred-Foot Journey, a great movie with French & Indian food at its warm heart. (Loved) That evening, my homage was complete as Turkey Salad Nicoise sat along side of Curried Orzo. Now, if I can only find a way to get to Saint-Antoin-Noble-Ans ...

Please note: both recipes are extremely flexible and you can add or subtract based on whatever appeals and/or is in your fridge. Also, almonds do not have a starring role in either recipe and may be removed if needed for the school lunch.

Turkey Salad Nicoise

Boston Globe Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven

2 lb. rotisserie cooked turkey breast (from grocer deli section)

1 lb. green beans, cleaned, trimmed, and halved

1/4 small red onion thinly sliced (if adverse to raw onion, use 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives)

3 stalks celery

1/2 cup pitted black olives, halved

3 tablespoons capers

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

3 eggs, hard boiled

Kosher salt, pepper

1. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Place green beans in water, wait for it to return to a boil and allow beans to boil gently for 3 minutes. Beans should be tender, but with a bit of a snap remaining.

2. While beans are cooking, remove cooked turkey from the bone and cut into 1 ½ inch strips. Place in large salad bowl.

2. When beans are done, drain in a colander and run very cold water over them to prevent them from cooking any further. Place on clean kitchen towel to dry.

3. Peel the back of each celery stick to remove tough strings. Cut each stalk length-wise and then chop on diagonal. Place chopped celery in a large salad bowl with turkey.

4. Add cooled green beans, capers, olives, and parsley to the turkey and celery already in the salad bowl.

5. Sprinkle the salad with half the olive oil and toss gently. Add the remaining olive oil along with a pinch of salt and several grinds of pepper.  Toss again.

6. In a small bowl whisk together (fork will be fine if you're not in possession of a small whisk) the vinegar and mustard until combined. Sprinkle the salad with the vinegar mixture and toss again. Add the toasted almonds, toss once more and, if needed, add a pinch more of salt and pepper.

7. Peel the hardboiled eggs and dry off with paper towel.  Cut each eggs into quarter length-wise.

8. Arrange salad on plates and add egg quarters.

Curried Orzo

1 cup orzo

1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a bit more to dress pasta

1 tablespoon butter, a bit more to dress pasta is optional as well

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted

2 cups broccoli florets, bite sized

2 teaspoon curry powder

1. Place butter and olive oil in sauté pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion, sprinkle with salt and sauté until tender and golden. Add the curry powder and sauté for about another few  minutes. Place on low heat as you await the broccoli.

2. Cook orzo as directed on box, but subtract a minute. Use a big-enough pot and plenty of salted water since you will be adding broccoli to the pot as the orzo cooks. When there is only 2 minutes left of cooking time for the orzo, add the bite-sized broccoli to the boiling water, allowing the broccoli to cook with the orzo. When the cooking time for the orzo is complete, turn off the heat. Use a slotted spoon to remove the broccoli from the orzo and place the broccoli with the curried onion mixture. You will carry some orzo over in the process, but that's ok. Drain orzo in colander. Then turn the heat back up to medium under the sauté plan

3. Once the orzo is drained, tip it into the broccoli and onion mixture. Pour in some extra olive oil and/or tablespoon of butter. Stir in the toasted almonds as well. Add an extra pinch of salt and pepper if needed.