This Niçoise Salad is my take on a French salad with raw and cooked vegetables, eggs, olives, artichoke hearts, tuna, and lemon vinaigrette.
Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas and year end holiday. This is the only time of the year when some of us here in the US get a nice long break and a chance to catch up with family and friends. We had some snow just before Christmas to freshen up the landscape. It may be cold outside but it is warm indoors and around the fireplace.
Christmas Party
We had a Christmas party that spanned both lunch and dinner time, with caroling around the fireplace to end the evening. Ro-Ri San brought in a lot of firewood and built a strong fire that warmed up the entire family room. Tea and cakes rounded off the holiday atmosphere.
A Salad Platter For Our Christmas Party
One of my favorite things to prepare for a party is Niçoise Salad. This large platter of raw and cooked vegetables, olives and canned tuna cater to all sorts of preferences. Everyone can pick from the composed platter (as opposed to a toss salad) to suit their taste buds. This recipe was adapted from Julia Child’s Salade Niçoise. This salad lends itself easily to substitutions and innovations. I omitted the eggs and anchovies this time and included some zucchinis instead.
What is A Niçoise Salad?
This is a delightful salad that originated in Nice, France. It is traditionally made of tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives, tuna or anchovies, dressed with olive oil or a lemon vinaigrette. It may also include artichoke hearts, peppers, and other seasonal vegetables. Like with all things, controversy surround whether there should be cooked vegetables like boiled potatoes and green beans but we are not here to delve into it today or any day. We just want to enjoy the salad as it is commonly known today. 🙂
Similar Items Used In This Niçoise Salad
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White Oval Turkey Platter | 20 Inch
Lenox French Perle Oval Platter
Lenox Opal Innocence Carved Large Oval Platter
Floyd Oval 16 inch Porcelain Serving Platter
Niçoise Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz baby potatoes (340g)
- 4 large eggs
- 6 oz green beans (trimmed) (170g)
- 1 head Boston lettuce (leaves separated and rinsed)
- 1 large tomato (cut into wedges)
- 1 medium cucumber (cut into slices)
- 3 large sweet peppers (red, orange, yellow) (cut into thin strips)
- 1 small red onion (cut into thin slices)
- 7 oz marinated pitted olives (200g)
- 7 oz grilledmarinated artichoke hearts (200g)
- 1 can chunk tuna in water (5oz/140g) (drained)
- 2 oz anchovies in olive oil (56g) (drained) optional
- Freshly ground pepper
Vinaigrette
- 2 large lemons (⅓cup/160ml lemon juice)
- 2 tsp honey
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil (120ml)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp dried tarragon
- 1 shallot (minced)
- ¼ tsp salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- Scrub baby potatoes and boil potatoes in lightly salted water for about 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Drain and peel when cool enough to handle. Cut into bite size pieces.
- Boil eggs for 6 minutes. Remove and plunge into cold water. Peel and cut into halves.
- Blanch green beans for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to cold water bath. Drain well.
- Squeeze the 2 lemons to get about ⅓cup/160ml lemon juice into a jar with a lid.
- Add all other lemon vinaigrette ingredients. Place the lid on and shake to combine.
- Arrange lettuce leaves in a single layer on a large platter. Place tuna in the center surrounded by marinated artichoke hearts and pitted olives.
- Arrange prepared baby potatoes, eggs, green beans, tomato wedges, cucumber, sweet peppers, onion around marinated ingredients on the platter.
- Grind pepper all over ingredients over the platter. Arrange strips of anchovies (if using) over vegetables.
- Just before serving, pour lemon vinaigrette all over salad.
Nutrition
Update: December 25th 2023
This was the big Niçoise Salad I made yesterday for our Christmas Eve dinner. I only made two dishes without any additional carbs and side dishes. We thoroughly enjoyed the salad and finished the entire thing.
Asian Beef Pot Roast
I decided to recreate the dishes I prepared for the Christmas party in 2010. The other dish I prepared was an Asian Beef Pot Roast that my Mom used to prepare, which was superbly tender, juicy, and flavorful. Up until now, I have not shared the recipe, but I will share it soon. I did make this Asian Pork Pot Roast which is similar but using pork instead of beef.
NOTE: The original publication of this post was on December 29th, 2010. This republication comes with changes to the recipe and writeup. The recipe in the original publication was a simplified version of this revised recipe. Instead of lemon juice, I used red wine vinegar. Lemon juice vinaigrette has a brighter taste and flavor.
Pam says
What a great meal! Your salad looks delicious and the prime rib looks perfect! We have those icicles also. Happy New Year to you and yours!
Belinda @zomppa says
Sounds like you had a satisfying holiday meal (s)!! Great salad. Happy New Year!
5 Star Foodie says
A wonderful holiday spread! And the Niçoise Salad sounds excellent for sure! Happy upcoming new year!
Cooking Gallery says
Oh yum yum yum! What a feast! I wish I could have been there and join the ‘party’ ;).
Stella says
Hey Biren, Gosh! That salad is so beautiful. You guys eat healthfully. I love Nicoise by the way. I used to make it a lot, but with a different preparation. I might have to try yours-so nice!
Hope you have a wonderful new year, Biren.
XOXO
Nasifriet says
Lovely colours! I love salad niçoise, but I even love it better if there are lots of anchovies 😉 Guess, it’s not to everyone’s taste buds, eh?
Lovely ‘cuisson’ on the rib roast. So mouth-watering. hahaha..
Looking forward to your 31st Dec post 😛
torviewtoronto says
lovely food happy new year
kitchen flavours says
Wow! What a great Christmas feast! Wishing you and your family A Happy New Year!
Victoria says
Merry Christmas, Biren! Your table looks great, and the large Nicoise is a great idea for a party platter 🙂 Great photos as well of the scenery.
sweetlife says
happy holidays, your table is exploding with delish dishes, i love your salad, I have not made a nicoise in forever..thanks for the reminder..take care
sweetlife
lequan says
Omg Biren! Your dinner looks amazing! I love that Nicoise salad, never seen it before. I would switch out the eggs for zucchini also, good option. Your roast looks perfectly done. Hubby usually does the meat, but don’t think he’s ever tried this method before. I’ll have to show him this. Glad the weather warmed up for you guys to enjoy all the beauties of winter. Great pictures as always, Biren. Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year!
Jeannie says
Very good idea to serve Nicoise salad…such a wonderful christmas spread! Hope you have a very Happy new year too:D
love2cook says
WOW!!! The salad looks awesome! The whole treat is mouthwatering!!! Happy New Year to U!!! 😀
Lea Ann says
Wow, you did have a celebration. Loved all the photos.
Sommer @ ASP says
Biren, it all looks magnificent! We had those little hershey pretzels this year as well. The Nioise salad is simply gorgeous! Happy New Year!
elisabeth@foodandthriftfinds says
What can I say Biren?…What a glorious holiday feast you had. I would have loved to be a “lucky” guest at your Christmas party!
The prime rib is superb, so juicy, tender, cannot believe you’ve never made this before.
Truly a spectacular holiday feast!
I too, have Julia Child’s Nicoise salad recipe…love the adapted take on it with the beans, so yummy, and healthy. Great combination to add to the main meal.
The table setting is gorgeous, the desserts make my head spin!
Wow…now that I “feasted” my eyes, at your FEAST, it’s time to get myself back to reality!
Oh, one more thing…loved the pretty icicles photo-bet it would win a winter photo contest.
OK…No more “drooling”, and “schmoozing”…actually, I meant every word of the compliments, which was totally deserved!
Wishing you and you wonderful family, a safe, healthy, blessed, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
xoxo
Magic of Spice says
I love your nicoise salad, and everything else looks amazing as well. Glad to hear your Holidays have been so lovely.
Wishing you the most beautiful of New Years 🙂
Hugs,
Alisha
Tanantha @ I Just Love My Apron says
Oh wow, cook ice pictures Biren! You guys had so much food! Everything looked so tasty. I’m having a New Year’s Eve party tomorrow and I’m so excited about it. Seeing you pics inspire me to do mine.
Happy New Year Biren!
The Mom Chef ~ Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time says
That table full of amazing food is stunning. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to post a picture of a salad when you have something like that gorgeous roast on the same page. I don’t even remember what the salad looks like. The roast is perfect. Absolutely perfect. I’m coveting a hunk of meat. 🙂
Happy new year!
Jay says
too tempting clicks…
My Heartiest Wishes for 2011..:)
Tasty appetite