Salade Niçoise
Instructions
Dressing
Tips
This recipe calls for black olives, but with so many different varieties, you may wonder which one to choose for your salad. Black olives are often softer, richer, and meatier than green olives. For an authentic experience, pick French Niçoise olives with a herbal fragrance and faint notes of liquorice. If you prefer a fruity note, go with black Amfissa olives. These firm and crisp olives are grown in regions of Central Greece and have a buttery taste with a hint of citrus.
Tips
You can get many different types of cherry tomatoes, each with its own distinct sweet flavour. Whichever type you choose, make sure they are firm with taut skin, so they keep their shape in the salad and that they have a deep colour.
Tips
Make ahead and save time! Once you have prepped eggs, potatoes, and yellow and green beans, you can refrigerate them separately in airtight containers for up to 3 days. When you are ready to serve, slice eggs and potatoes and toss them with the rest of the salad items.
Questions about salade Niçoise
This recipe for salade Niçoise is the ideal meal option for a filling lunch or a quick dinner. Read on to discover our answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the classic French salad so you can treat your loved ones to a delicious and decadent meal.
Salade Niçoise is a French salad originating from the city of Nice. The salad is made with tuna, olives, green beans, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, and potatoes. It is a popular summer salad, but with its hearty ingredients, it is a delicious dish that can be enjoyed all year long. Niçoise means 'from Nice’ or ‘in the style of Nice' and refers to a specific type of small olive grown in the Alpes-Maritimes region near Nice and has a rich flavour with hints of liquorice, but any variety of black olives will do for this recipe.
Make a classic salade Niçoise at home by boiling eggs and yellow and green beans separately for a few minutes. Remove the peel from the eggs and cut them in half. Pour the boiled beans into a bowl filled with ice-cold water and drain them in a sieve. Next, drain tuna and cut potatoes, tomatoes, and red onions as instructed in the recipe. Finally, arrange everything on a large dish and layer potatoes, yellow and green beans, tuna, tomatoes, onions, eggs, olives, and capers on top of each other. Garnish with lemon wedges and a bit of parsley.
The dressing for salade Niçoise consists of a thick and creamy dressing made with garlic, parsley, chives, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and lemon juice. The ingredients are mixed with equal parts of mayonnaise and fraiche until everything is well combined and drizzled on top of the salad for a finishing touch.
Salade Niçoise will last for about 2-3 days if kept in the fridge, depending on the freshness of the ingredients. However, lettuce leaves and tomatoes do tend to have a shorter shelf life and become soft and wilt rather quickly compared to the other items in the salad. Store any leftovers in an airtight container or refrigerate each component separately.
Ingredients
|
Eggs
|
4 |
|---|---|
|
Yellow and green beans
|
250 g |
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Canned tuna in oil
|
2 |
|
Boiled potatoes
|
300 g |
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Cherry tomatoes
|
225 g |
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Red onion
|
1 |
|
Mixed baby lettuce leaves
|
75 g |
|
Black olives with stone
|
1 dl |
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Capers
|
1 tbsp |
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Lemon cut into wedges (unsprayed)
|
1 |
Dressing
|
Sour cream, 9%
|
100 ml |
|---|---|
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Mayonnaise
|
100 ml |
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Finely chopped garlic clove
|
1 |
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Fresh parsley, finely chopped
|
1 tbsp |
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Chives, finely chopped
|
1 tbsp |
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Lemon (unwaxed)
|
Zest and juice from 1 |
|
Coarse salt
|
½ tsp |
|
Freshly ground pepper
|
Other recipes
Classic French salade Niçoise
Enjoy a classic French salade Niçoise that takes you to the French Riviera. Originating from Nice in Southern France, this salad has become quite a popular summer dish. But if you stick with seasonal produce, you can savour it all year long. In the style of Nice, this classic dish is made with hard-boiled eggs, yellow and green beans, tuna, potatoes, tomatoes, and olives and dressed with a creamy sour cream and mayonnaise dressing. With our salade Niçoise recipe, you will be able to make this classic dish like a pro.
A delicious salad for lunch or dinner
Only a few dishes have the amazing ability to keep it fresh and light while also being a proper meal. Made with hearty and delicious ingredients, this salad could easily pass as a main dish for lunch or dinner. Salade Niçoise offers a wide range of flavours and textures that will satisfy any craving. It is simple and refreshing but will keep you going for hours. The combination of fish and vegetables makes this dish excellent for a weekly family dinner or luncheon with friends.
Try some of our other salad recipes and keep it classic with a green Caesar salad topped with cheese chips and croutons or enjoy the wonderful combination of bacon and sunflower seeds mixed into a homemade broccoli salad. For a sweeter take with extra crunch, check out this classic Waldorf salad made with apples, grapes, walnuts, and celery.
Make an easy salade Niçoise dressing
We are keeping it nice and easy with a deliciously creamy dressing made with sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, herbs, seasoning, and freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest. As this salad contains a lot of different aromas, it needs a final flourish that completes each of these flavour nuances.
Our salade Niçoise dressing recipe ties the contrasting flavours of the ingredients together and gives it a fresh burst. Mixing sour cream and mayonnaise makes for a rich and creamy delight with a tangy and acidic taste that pairs wonderfully with the tuna and vegetables. Add a few dollops of rich dressing on top of the salad and enjoy.
Crunchy, soft, and flavourful ingredients
All the delicious salade Niçoise ingredients provide soft and crunchy textures that make for a bright and flavourful experience. The crunchy lettuce leaves form the base of the salad and are layered with potato slices, yellow and green beans, tuna, ripe tomatoes, onions, hard-boiled eggs, black olives, and capers. The salad is served with lemon wedges and a light sprinkling of parsley. It is a perfect harmony of sweet, briny, and tangy flavours that will make your tastebuds sing.
Make it your own
The classic salade Niçoise has evolved into a flexible format that allows you to be creative and change up the salad items. For more crunch, mix in thinly sliced radishes and cucumber. The radishes add a peppery, slightly spicy taste to the salad and create a fitting contrast to the mild and slightly sweet cucumber.
Although tuna is a classic when it comes to this salad, shake things up by adding salmon instead. A salmon Niçoise is delicious with the combination of buttery pink fish, salty capers, and all the other flavourful balanced ingredients. If you are not a fan of fish, make a new family favourite with a chicken Niçoise with grilled chicken breast in strips and maybe some salad cheese on top.