How To Make Nicoise Salad

Nicoise salad is a French salad that’s made with fresh vegetables, hard boiled eggs and tuna. You can serve this salad as a light lunch or dinner. 

Salads play an important role in Mediterranean cuisine as this cuisine uses fresh vegetables on a regular basis. You can make light salads such as Greek salad or more filling ones like our favorite Mediterranean tuna salad. Today’s recipe comes from the shores of the Mediterranean sea with a French root. 

About this recipe

Nicoise salad originated in the town of Nice in France. Traditionally, this salad is made with tomatoes, anchovies or tuna and hard boiled eggs. These days, it’s common to add green beans and potatoes to this salad as well. 

Same as cobb salad, nicoise salad is a composed salad, meaning that its ingredients are arranged beautifully instead of tossed together. This salad is perfect for entertaining and can be a showstopper at a party, gathering or a summer brunch. 

There seems to be some strong opinions about what should and shouldn’t go into this French salad. While some believe that only raw vegetables should be used, there are many versions that use cooked green beans on the salad. You can read more about this salad, its history and variations on Wikipedia. 

Nicoise salad preparation 

Making this salad could take some time because of the number of ingredients that are used in the recipe. To make salad nicoise, you need the following ingredients:

• Potatoes: You can use new potatoes or yukon gold potatoes chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces.
• Green beans: If you can find young and crisp green beans, you don’t need to cook them. Otherwise it’s best to cook them for a few minutes. 
• Eggs: We use hard boiled eggs for this salad. 
• Lettuce: A fresh head of lettuce can be used as a bed for the rest of the ingredients. 
• Tomatoes: Roma or plum tomatoes work best for this recipe. 
• Red bell pepper: Cut into thin slices. 
• Shallots: Cut into small pieces. 
• Nicoise olives: You can use Kalamata olives instead of nicoise olives.
• Tuna: It’s best to use tuna in olive oil as it has great texture and flavor. 

It’s best to prepare all the ingredients before assembling the salad. Cook the potatoes and green beans and let them cool a bit. If owning one, you can make hard boiled eggs in your instant pot. Once you have all the ingredients ready, start assembling the salad. 

The dressing for this salad

This salad is already so flavorful that you can simply serve it with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. I made a simple dijon dressing using lemon juice, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. However, this step is completely optional. 

More salad recipes:

• Caprese salad
• Mediterranean salad
• Mediterranean lentil salad

A few tips to make nicoise salad

• This is a tuna nicoise salad, however, you can also made a salmon nicoise salad by swapping tuna for salmon. You can use this baked salmon recipe. 
• I used boiled potatoes for this salad but you can also roast the potatoes in the oven and add them to the salad. 
• You can add other vegetables to this salad such as capers, corn, beans, or radishes.
• In addition to lettuce, you can use other salad greens such as spinach and arugula.  
• The leftovers should be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 2 days. 

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5 from 2 votes

How To Make Nicoise Salad

Nicoise salad is a French salad that's made with fresh vegetables, hard boiled eggs and tuna. You can serve this salad as a light lunch or dinner. 

Course Main Course

Cuisine French

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Calories 520kcal

Author Shadi HasanzadeNemati

Ingredients

• 2 yukon gold potatoes peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 8 oz green beans
• 4 large hard boiled eggs
• 1 head lettuce washed and chopped
• 2 cans tuna in olive oil drained
• 1/2 red bell pepper sliced
• 1 cup nicoise olives or kalamata olives
• 2 roma tomatoes cut into large pieces
• 1 shallot sliced

Dijon Dressing

• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

Instructions

• Cook the potatoes: Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with water and add 1 tsp of salt. Bring to boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain and set aside.
• Cook the green beans: While the potatoes are cooking, fill a medium sized pot halfway with water and bring it to boil. Cook the green beans for 5 minutes. Take them out of the boiling water and place them immediately in a bowl filled with ice water. This would help the green beans to keep their color. Drain and set aside.
• Assemble: Place the lettuce in a large plate or a shallow bowl. Place chunks of tuna in the middle and arrange the bell pepper slices, olives, tomatoes, shallot, cooked potatoes and green beans on the salad.

Dressing

• Place all the ingredients in a mason jar and place the lid on. Shake well until all ingredients are incorporated. Drizzle over salad and serve.

Video

Notes

• This is a tuna nicoise salad, however, you can also made a salmon nicoise salad by swapping tuna for salmon. You can use this baked salmon recipe. 
• I used boiled potatoes for this salad but you can also roast the potatoes in the oven and add them to the salad. 
• You can add other vegetables to this salad such as capers, corn, beans, or radishes.
• In addition to lettuce, you can use other salad greens such as spinach and arugula.  
• The leftovers should be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 2 days. 

Nutrition

Calories: 520kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 202mg | Sodium: 1105mg | Potassium: 1040mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 2250IU | Vitamin C: 47mg | Calcium: 127mg | Iron: 6mg