Celebrate the vibrant flavours of summer with this tuna nicoise salad.
This dish combines the best summer produce —crisp vegetables like cucumbers green beans, and cherry tomatoes — with creamy new potatoes and hearty canned tuna for a refreshing and satisfying meal.
I know, canned tuna doesn't sound very exciting. I was skeptical too when I was first introduced to this dish, but I promise you that it's absolutely delicious.
As someone who grows her own vegetables in the summer months, salad recipes end up being on constant rotation at my house.
This tuna nicoise salad is probably my favourite salad recipe of the bunch (second only to my couscous salad recipe).
This is just such an easy and tasty way to use all the fresh veggies that I grow in my backyard, and the lemon dressing is SO good.
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What is a Niçoise Salad?
A traditional tuna nicoise salad (called Salade Niçoise in French) contains ingredients that are integral to cuisine of the city of Nice. These include tomatoes, black olives, garlic and anchovies.
Additionally, most composed nicoise salad recipes also contain French green beans (a.k.a. haricot verts), onions, tuna and hard-boiled eggs, as well as some herbs.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Anchovy fillets: anchovies add salty umami flavour to a nicoise salad, but a lot of people don't like the look of them. I hide mine in the salad dressing, but you can omit them if you want to.
- Lemon: Lemons are an important part of the dressing, so I wouldn't substitute them. Fresh lemon juice works better than ReaLemon.
- Dijon mustard: I add Dijon mustard to all of my salad dressings to help them emulsify and thicken. If you don't have Dijon, substitute your favourite mustard.
- Olive oil: I used extra virgin olive oil in my dressing. You know how people say to save your fancy olive oil for salads? This is the time to use your good stuff.
- Potatoes: I like to use baby potatoes in this recipe, because they look nice, but you don't have to. Any waxy potato will work in this recipe. If you're going for a full size potato, look for Yukon Golds.
- Eggs: I use large hard-boiled eggs in this recipe. Sometimes I cook them through, and sometimes I leave them jammy. You can cook them to your preference, or omit them.
- Green beans: Ideally, you want to buy Haricot Verts (French green beans) for this recipe. If you can't find those, any string bean will do.
- Lettuce: Choose a soft Butterhead lettuce like Bibb, Boston or Buttercrunch.
- Radishes: If you don't like the peppery bite of radishes, you can leave them out.
- Cucumber: These are not in the traditional recipe. If I have fresh Marketmore cucumbers in my backyard, I'll use them. Otherwise I swap them out for artichoke hearts.
- Tomatoes: Literally any tomato that you enjoy raw eating will work in this recipe. Cherry and grape tomatoes look really pretty, but you could chop up a larger tomato instead.
- Red onion: If you do not like raw onions, try soaking them in a bowl of ice water for 10 minutes. Rinse them under cold water, and you'll find that they have less "bite". You could substitute a shallot, or omit it all together.
- Olives: Ideally we would be using nicoise olives (which are small cured olives with a rich nutty flavour). I have never seen these olives at my grocery though, so I usually use Kalamata or pimento-stuffed Manzanilla olives.
- Tuna: I highly recommend using tuna packed in oil for this recipe, as it has more moisture and flavour than tuna packed in water. If you don't like tuna, you could flake a cooked piece of salmon and use it instead.
Recipe Variations
As with all dishes, there are multiple variations of this recipe and many opinions about what should or should not be included.
One of the most controversial ingredients is boiled potatoes. As any nicoise salad purist will tell, they are not a part of the traditional recipe.
But they are REALLY tasty in this recipe, so I like to add them. The lemon dressing just soaks into the creamy potatoes and it's one of my favourite parts of the whole dish.
(Although, admittedly, I eat far less potatoes now that I'm diabetic.)
The nice thing about composed salads like this nicoise salad is that you can easily adapt them to suit your own preferences.
I've occasionally added marinated artichoke hearts if I have them. Hearts of palm would also work well here.
I like a ton of freshly ground black pepper on my salad. You might find that you like a sprinkle of flakey salt.
Many recipes include red wine vinegar in the dressing. I prefer to leave it out, so the lemon flavour can shine through.
Experiment and find what works best for you. If you do change the recipe, let me know what you used in the comments! I'd love to hear about your own variations on this dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nicoise (pronounced nee-SWAHZ) is a French phrase that means "as prepared in Nice". Nice is a city that is located on the French Riviera. This particular cooking style that usually includes certain ingredients like tomatoes, black olives, garlic and anchovies.
This salad is made with ingredients that are part of the cusine from the French city of Nice.
Most nicoise salads have a lemon dressing or vinaigrette. My lemon dressing is made with garlic, anchovies, lemon, Dijon mustard and olive oil.
Since nicoise olives can be difficult to find here, I usually substitute Kalamata or pimento-stuffed Manzanilla olives since they're readily available at most grocery stores. I don't like the flavour of Hojiblanca black olives, so I don't use them.
Recipe
Tuna Nicoise Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 4 anchovy fillets minced (or use a 1-2 teaspoon of anchovy paste)
- 1 lemon juiced (approximately ⅓ cup)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ⅔ cup olive oil
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 20 baby potatoes
- 4 large eggs
- 8 ounce green beans trimmed
- 1 head Bibb Lettuce torn into pieces
- 6 radishes thinly sliced
- ½ large cucumber peeled if desired, thinly sliced
- 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 small red onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup Kalamata olives or black olives pits removed, halved if desired
- 2 cans tuna packed in oil (I used Rio Mare)
Method
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until emulsified. Adjust seasoning to taste, then set aside. Alternatively, you can add the ingredients to a bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Rinse and dry all vegetables before you start cooking.
- Place baby potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Cook 15-20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain, then set aside to cool.
- Place eggs in a single layer in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a rolling boil, then remove pot from heat. Let eggs stand in the hot water for 10-12 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel eggs, cut each one in half, and set aside.
- Placed green beans in a pot of water, and cook until just barely tender (about 3 minutes). Plunge the cooked beans into a bowl of ice water to maintain the bright green colour. Drain and set aside.
- Use a potato masher, or a fork, to press down on the cooled potatoes until they crack. You don't want to completely smash them, just break them enough so they can absorb the dressing.
- Arranged the lettuce in a single layer on a large platter. This is the base of your salad. Arrange the cracked potatoes on top of the lettuce, along with the eggs, prepared vegetables and olives. Spoon the tuna out of the cans to avoid adding excess oil to the salad. You can either add the tuna directly to the platter, or place in a small bowl next to it.
- Season the salad with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper, if desired. Serve immediately with the dressing.
- Refrigerate unused portions promptly.
Teresa says
I love a non-traditional Salade Niçoise. If a recipe like this can't be a jumping off point for whatever looks best in the market, what's the point, right? I'd love the potatoes best in this, too.
Shareba says
I agree! I don't see a problem with adjusting recipes to suit your palette and what's in season, while still respecting the classics 🙂
Aimee Wimbush-Bourque says
I'm not even going to click on David's post because I adore baby potatoes in my nicoise and IMHO, your version looks perfect. Thanks for the reminder to make this salad.
Shareba says
Thanks Aimee! I love them too much to ever want to leave them out 🙂