Salade Nicoise is one of the traditional French salads, composed rather than tossed, and featuring fresh vegetables, tiny salty black olives, and tuna.
If you travel to France, chances are you will have the opportunity to eat in a restaurant or cafe. I hope so! Some of the best meals I ever ate were in France.
After a few French menu readings, you’ll see a theme. Often the same recipes appear throughout the country, perhaps with a few local tweaks. The French have their every day classics just as we do. Ours may be the patty melt, meatloaf, mac and cheese, or spaghetti and meatballs. Theirs may be the Quiche, Roast Chicken, or the Croque Monsieur.
Or the Salade Nicoise.
A little background for you, a dish prepared a la Nicoise, means it’s made the way they do it in Nice. Typically, this includes tomatoes, black olives, garlic, and anchovies. A salade nicoise has these elements as well as green beans, onions, tuna, hardcooked egg, and herbs.
I’ve done my best to recreate it here in a way that suits the American palate and grocery bill. The garlic is the seasoning to the green beans. The herbs are mixed in the dressing. The olives are Kalamata instead of true Nicoise because they are easier to find here. And I left out the anchovy and onion because 1. anchovy is fairly foreign to most Americans and can be expensive, and 2. I forgot to put the onion on before I photographed the picture. Oops!
I’ve also taken the liberty of adding cooked red potato because that’s how I was served it in France one day years ago when I dined out with my friend Lucile. She told me that some put rice in the salad instead of potato and that it’s a small bone of contention.
While I wish I were eating this in Collioure or Paris, I’m pretending at home with my own delicious Salade Nicoise. And now you can, too.
Salade Nicoise Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb red potatoes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cup green beans
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or fresh chopped garlic if you prefer)
- 1 6-ounce package baby greens
- 1 batch Dijon vinaigrette
- 1 14-ounce can albacore tuna drained
- 2 tomato chopped
- 4 eggs (hard-cooked) peeled and halved
- 1/2 cup Kalamata olives or other black olives
- 1 red onion sliced
Instructions
- Cook the potatoes until fork tender. I cooked mine in the microwave because it’s hot and who wants to heat the oven? Feel free to bake them in the oven or steam them in a pan. Once cooked, set aside to cool slightly.
- Heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering. Add the green beans and season them with the garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Cook, tossing, until the beans are tender.
- In a large salad bowl, toss together the greens and enough of the dressing to coat. Divide this among four dinner plates. Slice the potatoes. Compose the other salad ingredients atop the greens, dividing them equally between the plates: sliced potatoes, green beans, tuna, tomatoes, two egg pieces, olives, and sliced red onion. Serve the salads with additional dressing on the side.
Brenda Fuentes
Jessica, what are the herbs that are mixed into the dressing? I don’t see any on the Dijon mustard dressing recipe.
Erin
Yum! Thanks for posting this! Right now due to some health issues I’m having to eat dairy and gluten free. How nice to be reminded that instead of having to find strange substitutes I can just find real foods that don’t happen to include the things I need to avoid. Plus this has lots of great vegetables, which never hurts. I’ll probably add in some anchovies though, because they are one of my favorites.
Jessica Fisher
Yep! I am right there with you. I haven’t come up with a plan yet, but my own health issues are suggesting similar changes. Normal food without the gluten is my goal. 🙂
Shannon
Awwww, my mom spent her junior year in France and so I grew eating Salad Nicoise! We typically ate it with rice and usually skipped the olives. I loved reading about your travels and all the good food you feed you family!
Jessica Fisher
Isn’t that funny how the little variations arise? I imagine it’s the same way we Americans make classic dishes differently.
Rebecca
I also love Salade Nicoise. My husband and I ate it repeatedly on our honeymoon in the south of France. In fact, other dishes from that region have made it into our regular repertoire too – pissaladiere (onion pizza with anchovies and olives) and socca (a chickpea pancake).
Using anchovy paste in the dressing would be an easy way to get the flavour of the anchovies.
Jessica Fisher
I have not had either of the dishes you mention, but I hope I can try the real deal next time we go. Where did you honeymoon? We honeymooned in Collioure, west of Perpignan.
Stephanie M.
I love Salade Nicoise and I’ve made it for myself several times. I like the way each ingredient is set up in its own space on the plate. This makes it very appealing. I also love the variety of textures and flavors of this salad. Admittedly, I have not made it in a long time and this has now inspired me. Thanks for another great recipe.
Jessica Fisher
This kind of salad, the salade composee, is really common in France, but you probably knew that already. It definitely changes the presentation. Salads can otherwise feel like such a mishmash.
Stephanie M.
In Germany, when you get a salad in a restaurant, it is always served with each ingredient in it’s own little “pile” on the plate. I love that look so much that when we have company, many times, depending on the dinner, I serve salad that way. I set up however many glass salad dishes I need on my kitchen table and then I start making them all like an assembly line. It really is a pretty look and always impresses because it’s different from the norm.
Jessica Fisher
It is really pretty that way.