Customizable Salade Niçoise

Salade Nicoise with Tarragon Dressing

This full meal salad is one of my go-to recipes that I’ve been making forever. And every time I make it, it’s a little different, but always delicious. I encourage you to try it and make it your own. Let’s take a look at what’s in it.

Lettuce: Use whatever kind of lettuce you like or combine a few of your favourites. The important part here (and anytime you’re making a salad with lettuce) is prepping it. Separate the leaves and wash them under cold water. Then dry them thoroughly. I use a salad spinner. My first salad spinner was a garage sale special that I used for many years. It wasn’t very large though. So, when I had the chance, I bought a bigger one. The one I have is from The Pampered Chef and it’s one of the most used items in my kitchen. After I spin the lettuce, I lay the leaves on paper towels to absorb as much water as possible. If I am not going to use the lettuce right away, I wrap more paper towels around the lettuce leaves and put them in an open plastic bag in the fridge. Your goal is to have clean, crisp, dry lettuce for your salad.

Olives: The Niçoise in the salad’s name refers to the Niçoise olives originally used in it. These are small, purple olives that are a little on the sour side. I use whatever olives I have on hand, usually Kalamata. Pitted or unpitted, whole or sliced is not important. And, if you are really not an olive-eater, you can leave them out of the salad and it will still be good.

Beans: Tinned or freshly cooked, green beans are always a part of this salad. My favourite are the French style green beans. They are thinner than regular green beans and I admit I like the tinned varieties that come with little bits of red pepper in them. If you use the tinned beans, be sure to drain them well.

Tuna: An essential ingredient for this salad, you can use whatever kind of tuna you like. Mine has always come from a tin and I usually have solid white on hand. I break it up into bite-sized chunks.

Potatoes: You can use whatever potatoes you have in your pantry. I’ve tried them all in this salad at one time or another. Just boil them, skin on or off, and cut them into small pieces. Tiny, new potatoes are really good in here, too. You can prepare your potatoes ahead and have them in the fridge and ready to go at salad-making time.

Eggs: Hard boil them, peel them and cut them in half. (For an easy way to hard boil eggs: place eggs in a pot of cold water being sure they aren’t crowded too close together. Put pot on stove and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn the heat off and set the timer for 17 minutes. When the timer goes off, take the eggs out of the water and plunge them into a bowl of ice water. Keep them there until cool. You’ll get a nice, hard-boiled egg with a yellow yolk – no grey discoloration. Don’t know why this works, it just does.)

Tomatoes: They need to be fresh. Use grape or cherry tomatoes or regular-sized tomatoes sliced into rounds or chunks.

The Dressing: Salade Niçoise is usually topped with some sort of vinaigrette. I always have this Tarragon Dressing with it. Though it’s a very simple creation, it still has room for customizing. You can use a red wine vinegar or a sherry vinegar or, for a bit of a different taste, balsamic vinegar. I like using olive oil, but if you want to use half olive oil and half of another oil, give it a try. The herbs are dried. I have used fresh but prefer the dry ones in this dressing. In a pinch, you can substitute prepared mustard for the dry mustard.

If you give this salad a try, let me know what you used in it and how you liked it. 

MA’s Salade Niçoise

6 or 7 cups lettuce, your favourite kind, torn into bite-sized pieces

1-398 ml tin French style green beans, drained, or 2 cups fresh beans, steamed and cooled

2-184 gram tins tuna, drained and flaked into chunks

12 olives, Kalamata or your favourite, pitted or unpitted

5 potatoes, boiled, cooled and cut into bite-sized chunks

4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved

½ pint grape or cherry tomatoes or 2-3 tomatoes cut into bite-sized chunks

Place the lettuce in the bottom of a large salad bowl.

Arrange the remaining ingredients on top of the lettuce in way that pleases you.

Immediately before serving, pour the Tarragon Dressing over the salad. Leftovers will keep for a day or two in the fridge, but be prepared for the limp lettuce.

Serves 2 – 3 as a main dish. 

Printable Recipe for MA's Salade Nicoise

MA’s Tarragon Dressing

2 tbsp wine vinegar

6 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp dry mustard

¼ tsp dried tarragon

¼ tsp dried basil

dash of pepper

Combine all ingredients in a cruet or jar.

Shake well. Pour onto salad just before serving.

Printable Recipe for MA's Tarragon Dressing