A Hearty, Fragrant, and Delicious Winter Salad.

Typically this Nicoise Salad (pronounced neez-wahz) is served in summer in France, but we love the flavors so much that we use it as a winter salad too. We love that you can build a hearty salad that satisfies the need for more filling food in Winter while offering lots of vegetables and protein without meat. If you look in the fridge and pantry you’ll typically find most of the ingredients on hand, so why not give it a try. We’re having it for our Sunday supper along side some crunchy breaded shrimp. This salad normally includes canned tuna but we don’t always follow the rules 🙂

The TwoFoodNuts version of Nicoise Salad:

Serves 2-3 as a main dish or 6 as a sidedish

The Dressing:

• 3/4 cup Olive oil
• Grated peel of 1 Lemon
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 Tbsp white Balsamic or white wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Herbs de Provence
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 minced or grated garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup finely minced flat leaf Italian parsley or Basil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Place everything into a small mixing bowl and whisk to incorporate. The mustard will help thicken the dressing.  Set aside.

The Salad:

• 12-14 Baby potatoes halved
• 12 Kalamata Olives or olives of your choice
• 12 cherry tomatoes halved
• 6 Gerkins or baby dill pickles
• 1/4 sweet onion, thinly slices and added to tomatoes
• 20 green beans, stem end removed
• 2 slices of bacon, chopped and fried till crisp (optional for vegetarian versions)
• 4 eggs soft boiled
• drain 1 can of oil packed Tuna if you wish to keep the salad traditional
• a few lettuce leaves to place the ingredients on at plating.

Begin by setting all the ingredients into separate bowls. This will help when you’re ready to dress the components to assemble the finished salad.  

Preparing the cooked ingredients:

• To cook the potatoes and green beans, use a steamer.
• Steam them individually until just tender. Steaming keeps them from becoming water-logged.
• Fry the bacon till crisp and drain on paper towel.
• Boil the eggs by covering them with cold water, bring to a boil, cover and turn off heat for 5 minutes.

As soon as the potatoes are tender, place them in their bowl and spoon over a few tablespoons of the dressing to coat the potatoes well. Do the same with the beans. Dressing them when they are hot helps them absorb the delicious dressing! Dress the tomatoes and onions the same way. Just a bit of dressing on the ingredients flavors without making them soggy.

Get out a pretty platter and begin adding everything so it looks appetizing. You can mix it all up or place the ingredients into their own section.  We  like to use lettuce leaves as a base and build the salad from there. Serve with crusty bread and a side dish as we did or simply use the tuna for a full meal.

Cook’s Tip: Make this salad your own by changing up the potatoes to little red ones, or using white kidney beans in place of green beans, serve with a piece of grilled salmon and try chunks of Feta with the dressing.  You name it, you can substitute it and still get a fabulous winter salad.