Salad Niçoise with Potatoes
Salade Niçoise is originally from Nice (like the ratatouille), but has become a staple French dish consumed throughout the country. A very colorful dish, it is famous for including tuna steak or anchovies, along with tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, onions, black olives, and a few greens that vary depending on the season.
There are as many variations of this salad as there are ingredients. The important thing to remember is you are making it for yourself and your friends and family, so if you’re not a fan of something, leave it out; likewise, if you really love a certain ingredient, add a little more.
The salad Niçoise recipe below is our collective favorite here at Chef’s Pencil. However, if we were true to the salad’s namesake (i.e. from Nice in France), it would definitely not include potatoes.
Enjoy this superb salad Niçoise recipe with potatoes by Chef Paul Hegeman.
Salad Niçoise with Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 200 grams French beans stems removed, par blanched
- 2 roma egg tomatoes, seeded and quartered
- 1 Lebanese seeded and cut to 1-2 cm (1 inch) pieces
- 1 purple onion cut into 1 cm pieces
- 1/2 cup Kalamata olives pitted
- 10-20 basil leaves
- Few sprigs of thyme
- 8 anchovy fillets
- 4 x 130 grams tuna steaks approx 2 cm (1 inch) thick or 1 x 400 gram (14 oz) tin of tuna in oil (or in water for a lighter version)
- 5 medium new potatoes or Chat potatoes, cut to approx 2-3 cm (1.5 inch) halves or quarters
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons baby capers finely chopped
- 80 ml white wine vinegar (3 oz)
- 2 tsps Dijon mustard
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil plus extra for frying
- Sea salt flakes
- Black pepper freshly ground
Instructions
Dressing:
- Peel the garlic, cut in half lengthwise, and add to about 400 ml (14 oz) extra virgin olive oil. Llet marinate for at least a few hours.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the Dijon mustard, capers, thyme, white wine vinegar, and garlic infused olive oil and season with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Whisk the ingredients together and set aside.
Salad:
- Place the potatoes in a medium sized pot, cover with cold salted water, and bring to the boil. Boil for about 3-5 minutes, strain, and set aside.
- Cut each tomato into 4.
- Place the tomato, cucumber, capsicum, beans, onion, olives, and basil leaves in a large bowl.
- In a non-stick pan, place a few tbsps of olive oil and fry the potatoes until golden on all sides. Season with sea salt and cracked pepper and add to the other vegetables in the bowl.
- To poach the eggs, place 6 cups of water with 1 tbsp vinegar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat, add the eggs one at a time, and return to the heat. When the whites are fully cooked and the yolks still soft, remove from the heat, drain off any excess water and set aside.
- If using tinned tuna, drain the tuna, add to the bowl, and break into large chunks.
- If using fresh tuna: wipe the potato pan clean and sear the tuna in some olive oil (approx 1 minute for very beautifully rare).
- Drizzle the contents of the bowl with some of the prepared dressing.
- Place the tossed salad onto plates, top with the seared tuna steaks if using them, and top with the still warm poached eggs and 2 anchovies each. Make a small incision in each yolk to allow the yolk to start running out and serve immediately with some crusty French baguettes.
- The above presentation can be altered for a more rustic look by cutting the tuna into cubes before searing and tossing it with the salad.
Notes
