Salad Nicoise Deconstructed
I love a great Salad Nicoise. Hard to beat the combo of starchy potatoes, meaty tuna, crunchy green beans, salty olives, fresh cucumbers and hard boiled eggs, slathered in a tangy mustard dressing. While you often find Nicoise made with seared fresh tuna this recipe is more traditionally French and made with a good quality tuna packed in olive oil. See below for the brand I used.
Best part about this salad is that you only have to cook two things, the green beans and the potatoes. I bought cooked beets, white beans and hardboiled eggs at Whole Foods. The rest is chopping vegetables and making a dressing.
Important note. I photographed the salad with tomatoes, but I would omit them. I find tomatoes bring out the fishiness in canned tuna. It’s the same reason I never put them on my tuna sandwich. Yuck.
Ingredients
For the dressing:
1 clove garlic
Kosher salt, to taste
⅓ cup olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T Dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced (2 heaping tablespoons)
½ tsp Italian seasoning
couple pinches of sugar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (start with ¼ tsp salt and add more to taste)
For the salad:
1 lb. extra small new potatoes or baby Yukon golds - oven roasted
4 to 6 oz. store bought cooked beets
8 oz. haricot verts, blanched
½ cup pitted black Niçoise olives
8 small radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
4 hard-boiled eggs, halved lengthwise
2 (6-oz.) jars high-quality oil-packed tuna, drained
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
½ cup cooked large white beans – bought them at Whole Foods.
½ cup loosely packed basil leaves, to garnish optional
¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, to garnish optional
Instructions
Make the dressing: Mince garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle heavily with salt; using a knife, scrape garlic and salt together to form a smooth paste. Transfer paste to a bowl and whisk in oil, juice, mustard, shallot, Italian seasoning, two healthy pinches of sugar, salt and pepper; set aside. Don’t be afraid to use salt!
Green beans - Fill a pot with water, add 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Add haricot verts and boil for 2 minutes. Strain, add to ice water to stop the cooking.
Potatoes – Preheat oven to 425. Cut potatoes in half, place in roasting pan, toss with salt, pepper, 1.5 T olive oil, pinch of garlic powder, ½ tsp oregano. Roast for 20 minutes or until nicely browned.
Make the salad: Arrange all ingredients in separate rows on a large serving platter; drizzle dressing over all ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with basil and scallions just before serving.
Note* - If you’d like you can add some mixed greens to the salad.
Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4–6
HEARTFUL RECIPE – One of our real food recipes that focuses on veggies, protein, healthy fats and/or healthy carbs and doesn't include gluten, dairy, soy, refined sugar, corn or peanuts.
