Refreshing Salad Niçoise highlights flavors popular in the city of Nice. Along with tender fillets of tuna, the colorful medley includes French green beans, tomatoes, hard-cooked eggs, onions, and olives atop a bed of greens.
Salad Niçoise
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
- Vinaigrette:
- ⅓ cup Champagne vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon garlic paste
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ⅔ cup olive oil
- ½ cup thinly sliced red onion
- Salad:
- 8 cups water
- ½ pound French green beans
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 (12-ounce) tuna fillet
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 3 cups loosely packed torn romaine
- 3 cups loosely packed torn red leaf lettuce
- 1 (2-ounce) package anchovies in olive oil, drained and chopped
- 3 hard-cooked eggs, halved
- 1 cup pitted olives*, halved
- 3 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley leaves
Instructions
- For vinaigrette: In a medium bowl, whisk together vinegar, mustard, honey, garlic paste, salt, black pepper, and red pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add onion to soften and set aside.
- For salad: In a medium stock pot, bring 8 cups water to aboil over medium-high heat. Add green beans and cook until bright green, 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, carefully transfer green beans to ice bath to cool. Remove after 10 minutes; pat dry.
- In a small nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle tuna with salt and pepper; add to skillet. Cook until meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion registers 140° to 145°, 3 to 4 minutes per side, or to desired degree of doneness. Remove from skillet and set aside to let cool for 20 minutes. Slice across the grain into thin slices.
- Remove onions from vinaigrette.
- On a large platter, arrange romaine and red leaf lettuces. Top with green beans, tuna, anchovies, eggs, tomatoes, olives, and reserved onions, grouping individual ingredients. Sprinkle with parsley. Whisk vinaigrette and drizzle over salad. Serve immediately with remaining vinaigrette.
- *Niçoise olives are the traditional choice, but kalamata olives can be substituted.
