At the market yesterday, I picked up the most beautiful cherry tomatoes, the freshest of fresh green beans, and some gorgeous red bell peppers. What to do with them? I remembered reading a Niçoise Salad Recipe in an old cookbook years ago, but I couldn’t quite remember the other ingredients. Luckily there was a French restaurant not far away, so I popped in to ask the chef. He told me that the original French salad must contain anchovies. But I thought it should be possible to make a vegetarian Niçoise salad, to showcase the best of local, seasonal, produce. And it was! Stay with me to find out more.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Salad Niçoise is one of my favorite salads, and a beauty in every way. You’ll love it too, for reasons like:
- Packed with protein, even though it’s vegetarian!
- Uses the best of seasonal summer produce, and shows them at their finest.
- So quick and easy to make, it comes together in just a few minutes.
- Vibrant, beautiful colors on your plate.
- Highly adaptable to market variations – use whatever looks good!
- Can be an appetizer for an elegant meal as easily as a casual lunch.
My Inspiration for the Niçoise Salad Recipe
The main inspiration came from the vegetables, of course! When you have such great local produce, you don’t need to do much. But I have to confess there was also a part of me that wanted to prove that French chef wrong. Of course, I would be able to make this salad delicious despite not using the anchovies he said were non-negotiable!
I used salt-packed capers in my dressing instead to hint at the briny, salty marine flavors, and I bulked the salad out a little with some extra ingredients to compensate for the missing fish. Oh, joy! It is a strong contender to become one of my favorite salads of all time. A vegetarian star is born.
What does Niçoise Stand For?
Niçoise salad just means a salad that comes from the city of Nice. The theme has many variations, but most Niçoise salads contain romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, red bell peppers, green beans, anchovy fillets, eggs, olive oil, garlic, and vinegar. It’s often thought that Niçoise salad always includes potatoes and tuna, but neither is part of the traditional recipe from Nice.
However, although they are usually considered a foreign bastardization of the recipe, baby potatoes and tuna fish often find their way into French Niçoise salads now as well! (Let’s not tell that French chef, we might break his traditional heart.) Other common additions are white beans, cucumbers, fresh herbs, red onions or shallots, and lemon juice.
Ingredient List
To make Niçoise salad, you will need the following basic ingredients:
For the Salad
For the Niçoise Salad Dressing
Ingredient Substitutes
If you’re missing any of the core ingredients, try one of these substitutes:
- Green beans: Try mangetout or sugar-snap peas instead.
- Romaine lettuce: Try arugula or any mixed salad greens.
- Cooked white beans: Boiled baby potatoes will give you a similarly filling outcome, though the carb count will be higher, and the protein count lower.
- Cherry tomatoes: Regular tomatoes will do, the most important thing is that they are ripe tomatoes, in season. Pallid winter tomatoes won’t cut it.
- Roasted red peppers: A fresh, finely sliced bell pepper will work, although the salad will be a little different. Go for a red or yellow pepper; the bitterness of a green bell pepper isn’t quite right for this recipe.
- Eggs: If you want to make a vegan Niçoise salad, simply omit the eggs. It will still taste really good!
- Black Niçoise olives: Substitute with any good quality black olives, such as Kalamata olives.
- Shallot: Try using ¼ of a small red onion. Soak it briefly in water after mincing, to remove the sharpness.
- Red wine vinegar: White wine vinegar, walnut vinegar, or even apple cider vinegar will all work in a pinch. Or try freshly squeezed lemon juice for a zingier version.
- Dijon mustard: Grainy mustard is a good substitute, or leave it out entirely. Yellow mustard isn’t right for this recipe.
- Salt-packed capers: Capers in brine will be fine, though they don’t taste quite as good as the salt-packed ones.
Healthy Variations
Do you want to add an extra healthy kick to your vegetarian Niçoise salad? Here are some ideas:
- A handful of fresh herbs: This recipe loves aromatics! Fresh basil, parsley, tarragon, or chervil are all great additions. Chop roughly and mix with the lettuce.
- Baby potatoes: Add some boiled baby potatoes to make the salad more filling and turn it into a larger meal. If you choose to do this, make double the salad dressing, and add the extra to the freshly boiled potatoes. They will soak up the garlicky dressing while warm. Yum!
- Cucumbers: Fresh chopped cucumbers are a great addition, especially if you want to lighten the salad. Cut them chunky, not fine, and toss with the white beans.
- Lemon juice: Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice for some extra zing.
- Want a low-carb version? Skip the white beans, and add some extra vegetables. Two-thirds of the carbs in this recipe come from the white beans.
- Canned tuna: Non-vegetarians can add some best-quality cans of tuna as a topping. Fresh tuna steak is also an option.
How to Make Niçoise Salad with Easy Cooking Steps
Cooking Tools Required
Here are the tools you’ll need to make this classic salad recipe:
Cooking Method
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Fill a large bowl with iced water.
- Top and tail the green beans, halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the roasted red peppers, and chop the romaine lettuce.
- Peel and mince the shallot and the garlic clove.
- Rinse and drain the capers, and chop finely.
Cooking Steps
- Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Add the eggs, and cook for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, add the green beans to the same pot. Boil for 5 more minutes, then drain, and plunge both beans and eggs into the bowl with the iced water.
- When cool enough to handle, peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half.
Making the Dressing
- To make the dressing for your Niçoise salad, simply put all the ingredients for the dressing into a jar with a screw cap. Screw the cap on and shake vigorously until well combined. Check the flavor, and season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Making the Salad
- Put the white beans into a mixing bowl and add one third of the dressing. Toss together, to coat, then add to one side of the serving platter.
- Put the romaine lettuce in the same bowl, and add another third of the dressing. Toss together, then put next to the beans on the platter.
- Add the tomatoes, red peppers, and green beans to the platter, keeping each ingredient discrete to look beautiful on the plate. Drizzle over the last of the dressing, being sure to get every last bit of garlic, shallot, and capers out of the jar and onto the plate.
- Top with the black olives and halved hard boiled eggs.
Alternate Cooking Methods
If you prefer to steam the green beans rather than boil them, this will work just fine. Just remember that you still need to arrest the cooking process by plunging them into iced water.
Best Tips to Ace This Recipe
- Don’t omit the iced water bath for the green beans. It stops the cooking process in its tracks, leaving the beans perfectly cooked and retaining a bright green color — exactly what you’re after. No one wants mushy brown beans!
- Boiling the eggs and beans in the same pan at the same time makes it much quicker and also saves you from having to wash up an extra pan! Just remember that the eggs boil for about 10 minutes and the green beans for about 5 minutes.
- Get the best ripe seasonal tomatoes you can find. It really makes a difference, with the fresh tomatoes providing delicious, sweet, umami flavor as well as a light acidity.
- Peeling hard-boiled eggs can be a pain in the you-know-what. I find the easiest way is to slide a teaspoon between the skin and the egg, with the teaspoon inverted and following the natural curve of the egg. But if you don’t want to bother with this step, you can always just buy peeled, hard-boiled eggs from the grocery store.
How to Serve Nicoise Salad Recipe?
I like to serve Nicoise salad as described above, with each ingredient in a separate pile on the plate. Not only does it look beautiful, it’s also easy for each person to serve themselves from the platter, taking as much or as little as they like of their favorite components. You can then mix them together on your own plate.
However, if you prefer, you can mix it together with the dressing in a large mixing bowl in the kitchen, before transferring to a serving bowl. Just be sure to hold the olives and eggs back to put on the top at the end.
How to Store Nicoise Salad?
Once mixed with the dressing, Niçoise salad does not store well because the romaine salad leaves wilt quickly when exposed to oil. All components can be made in advance and stored, but it is suggested that the salad ingredients be stored separately from the dressing, only adding the oily dressing immediately before serving.
Freezing is not recommended for this recipe.
Conclusion
There you have it — a delicious, traditional Niçoise Salad Recipe, made vegetarian-friendly with just the slightest few tweaks and changes. I will forever be grateful to that French chef, even though he didn’t realize he was setting me a challenge! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and that it becomes one of your best summer salad recipes too! Let me know in the comments how you get on.
Extra Salad Recipes
If you’re looking for more amazing salad recipes, try out one of these:
A Niçoise salad is a salad from the city of Nice, in South East France. It contains a variety of fresh vegetables and salad ingredients, and usually anchovies and hard-boiled eggs as well.
Most Niçoise salads contain tomatoes, black olives, red bell peppers, green beans, anchovies, eggs, olive oil, garlic, and vinegar. Some less traditional but common additions are baby potatoes, tuna, cucumbers, fresh herbs, red onions or shallots, and lemon juice.
Niçoise salad dressing usually includes olive oil, mustard, red wine vinegar, and garlic. Shallots and lemon juice are sometimes used as well.
The name Nicoise comes from the city of Nice, France. A Niçoise salad is a traditional salad from Nice.
The typical drink pairing with salad Niçoise is a Provençal rosé wine. However, any off-dry white or rosé wine will probably go well with Niçoise salad.
Nicoise Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 cup of green beans topped and tailed
- 2 eggs hard-boiled
- 2 cups cooked white beans 1 x 14.5 ounce can, drained
- 2 cups romaine lettuce roughly chopped
- 2 cups of cherry tomatoes halved
- ¼ cup of olives black, preferably Niçoise olives
- 4 ounces roasted red bell peppers sliced
For the Niçoise Salad Dressing
- 1 shallot peeled and minced
- 1 clove of garlic peeled and finely sliced
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt-packed capers rinsed, drained, and minced
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Fill a large bowl with iced water.
- Top and tail the green beans, halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the roasted red peppers, and chop the romaine lettuce.
- Peel and mince the shallot and the garlic clove.
- Rinse and drain the capers, and chop finely.
Cooking Steps
- Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Add the eggs, and cook for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, add the green beans to the same pot. Boil for 5 more minutes, then drain, and plunge both beans and eggs into the bowl with the iced water.
- When cool enough to handle, peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half.
Making the Dressing
- To make the dressing for your Niçoise salad, simply put all the ingredients for the dressing into a jar with a screw cap. Screw the cap on and shake vigorously until well combined. Check the flavor, and season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Making the Salad
- Put the white beans into a mixing bowl and add one third of the dressing. Toss together, to coat, then add to one side of the serving platter.
- Put the romaine lettuce in the same bowl, and add another third of the dressing. Toss together, then put next to the beans on the platter.
- Add the tomatoes, red peppers, and green beans to the platter, keeping each ingredient discrete to look beautiful on the plate. Drizzle over the last of the dressing, being sure to get every last bit of garlic, shallot, and capers out of the jar and onto the plate.
- Top with the black olives and halved hard boiled eggs.
