Tuna nicoise salad

This satiating and healthy tuna nicoise salad combines raw and cooked vegetables with boiled eggs and tuna. This is a lovely main course salad with great texture, great flavour, and it leaves you feeling completely satisfied at the end of your meal.

Jump to:

• What makes a niciose salad
• Ingredients
• Recipe for nicoise salad
• What dressing should you use
• Frequently asked questions
• More filling main course salads:
• Recipe

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What makes a niciose salad

Nicoise salad comes from the French area Nice. It is commonly made of tomatoes, tuna, boiled eggs and olives with a drizzle of olive oil. This salad is popular all around the world, and you can now commonly find tuna nicoise salad with other ingredients like raw or cooked vegetables.

This recipe is based on the classic nicoise, but I have also added potatoes and green beans, and serve it with a simple dressing. This makes the salad a bit more interesting, and makes it feel like more of a complete meal. Tuna nicoise is a great salad for those that don’t really like salads, as the combination of flavours and textures really don’t feel like a salad at all.

Ingredients

A great salad has great ingredients. Here is everything you need to make a perfect tuna nicoise salad.

• Olives – kalamata olives are the best, but you can use black olives as well.
• Potatoes – use baby potatoes which we will roast or boil.
• Green beans – fresh or frozen both works great!
• Tuna – a small tin of it is enough
• Boiled eggs – hard boiled eggs add protein to the salad
• Tomatoes – fresh and ripe; any type of tomatoes can be used
• Lettuce – or any other leafy green like spinach
• Dressing – buy it bottled or make your own dressing

Recipe for nicoise salad

Prepare the potatoes: You can either roast or boil the potatoes. I prefer to roast them. Slice them thinly, and lay them out on a baking tray. Lightly brush them with a little olive oil, add a sprinkle of salt, and roast them at 200°C / 180°C fan oven / 395°F degrees until they are slightly golden and cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.

To boil the potatoes, cut them in equal sized pieces, then add to boiling water. Boil until they are fork tender, and be careful not to cook them for too long.

Prepare the green beans: Add water to a small pot, and bring it to a boil. Add fresh or frozen green beans, and bring it down to simmer. Leave the green beans until they have cooked through, about 5 minutes. Then, drain off the water and place the beans on the plate.

Boil the eggs: Bring water to a boil in a pot, and add raw eggs. Allow it to simmer for 7 minutes, then rinse the eggs in cold water and remove the eggshells.

Lay down a bed of lettuce on your plate. Slice or dice tomatoes, and plate with the green beans and potatoes. Add olives, boiled eggs, and tinned tuna with the water drained off. Finish by adding a little vinaigrette or dressing on top, then serve.

What dressing should you use

The traditional tuna nicoise salad dressing is simply a light drizzle of high quality olive oil. I usually serve mine with a simple lemon pepper vinaigrette, which compliments the tuna particularly well. You can also serve it with a dijon dressing.

Frequently asked questions

Can you substitute the ingredients? Yes. You can omit or substitute any ingredient to your preference.

How do you store leftovers? Store leftover tuna nicoise salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

More filling main course salads:

• Shrimp and avocado salad – super easy and filling with healthy fats and protein. A great low calorie alternative.
• Italian salad with mozzarella and salami – with all the good flavours from Italian cooking, this hits the spot just right when all you want is cheese and salami.
• Chicken and mango salad – a light chicken salad with fresh mango and plenty of colour.

Recipe