What Is a Niçoise Salad?
Traditionally, it’s a French salad from the area of Nice, France; hence the name Niçoise. There’s always potatoes, haricots verts (thin French green beans), and briney olives (or capers). I purposely left the olives off because I don’t have any olive fans in my family but they’re an easy addition if you’re an aficionado. Traditional Niçoise salads tend to use tuna but I will always choose salmon over tuna, and that’s what I did here. It’s tender, flaky, and melts in your mouth. Crunchy elements like cherry tomatoes, radishes, and English cucumbers tend to be juxtaposed with tender ones including these soft-boiled eggs. How I love a super soft and almost runny center but if you don’t, rather than boiling for 7 minutes like I did, boil for up to 12 minutes if you want true hard-boiled eggs, and somewhere in between for more set centers, but not too firm. Rather than making an anchovy-based dressing, which is traditional, I made my 30-second blender Basil Vinaigrette. It’s light and fresh with tons of flavor from shallots and red wine vinegar, but it has sufficient olive oil to really cling to the fresh salad ingredients and give them an oilier and therefore more robust and satisfying mouthfeel. Let’s face it, oil makes things taste better.
I’ll be the first to admit that as “salads” go, this is as high maintenance as a salad gets. However, there’s no lettuce here. I’d like to think of this “salad” more like a cheeseboard — a composition of ingredients that all work really well together and play off each other in the best possible way, but when you have lots of different ingredients with different cooking times and means, it can get a little fussier. But by no means is it hard, it’s just a bit more time-consuming than a typical salad. We’re still only talking about 45 minutes from start to finish because you can prep, arrange, cook, assemble, and so-forth. While one thing is going, and you can be working ahead on the other things and the next steps. I encourage you to read ahead and look ahead in the recipe to avoid just standing around otherwise it will take you longer than 45 minutes. Embrace multi-tasking for this one. For something that feeds 6 and that looks so beautiful, it’s totally worth it. It just tastes elegant and refined. Your guests will be so impressed. And in case anyone is gluten-free, the salad is naturally gluten-free.
Salmon Niçoise Salad Ingredients
For the salmon niçoise salad, I used:
Skin-on salmon filet Olive oil Lemon juice Honey Salt and pepper Soft-boiled eggs Baby red potatoes (Trader Joe’s) Haricos verts, aka thin French green beans (Trader Joe’s) Artichoke hearts (Trader Joe’s frozen that I allowed to come to room temp) Radishes English cucumber, sliced into thin rounds Cherry or grape tomatoes (I used Trader Joe’s mixture of red and yellow)
For the niçoise salad dressing, I used:
Basil (Trader Joe’s) Olive Oil Shallot Red wine vinegar Honey Salt and pepper
How to Make a Salmon Niçoise Salad
I’ve given very detailed instructions below on how to make this niçoise salad recipe, but here’s an overview:
Can This Salad Be Made in Advance?
Imagine serving this at your next casual dinner party or casual get-together. Imagine having guests come over. Just that alone right now I would adore. But I would especially love to be a guest when this is brought out. In my opinion, this salad can be served at room temp and doesn’t need to be served piping hot. So if you spend the hour before your guests arrive making it, and putting the finishing touches on it when people are arriving and having their first glass of wine or cocktail, you can cocktail it up for about an hour before digging in. I would cover it tightly with foil and don’t add the vinaigrette until the time of service.
Tips for the Best Niçoise Salad
As noted above, I took a generations-old salad and made it my own. The ingredients are flexible and feel free to make adaptations and substitutions based on your preferences. Things like tuna rather than salmon, olives, capers, avocado, or red onions are all great additions. Make the niçoise salad dressing with anchovies, whole-grain or Dijon mustard, garlic, and olive oil rather than the herby one I made. This would be a great fridge produce drawer clean out salad, too. Use what you have on hand. Just sayin’.
More Healthy Salad Recipes:
Honey Lemon-Glazed Salmon Salad— Ready in 15 minutes and can easily be meal prepped. My whole family loves this recipe and said it’s their favorite salmon salad I’ve ever made! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
30 Best Easy Healthy Salads — Looking for easy salad recipes that are both filling and flavorful? The 30 healthy salads on this list are the BEST salads you’ll ever eat!!
