Tuna salad - the French way! Hefty and interesting enough for lunch, but not so heavy it loses its summery appeal.Use the best tuna you can get, in oil not spring water!
Course: Salad meal
Cuisine: French
Keyword: French salad, Nicoise Salad, Salade Nicoise, Tuna Salad
Servings: 4
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
8baby/chat potatoes(Note 1)
120g/ 4 oz green beans, trimmed
2tomatoes, each cut into 8 - 10 wedges
1/2baby cos lettuce (romaine), cut or torn into large bite size pieces
250 - 300g/ 8 - 10ozcanned chunk tuna in oil, drained and broken into large chunks (Note 3)
Lemon Nicoise Dressing:
1 1/2tbsplemon juice
4tbspextra virgin olive oil
1small garlic clove, minced/grated
1/4tspsalt
1tspDijon mustard
Pinchblack pepper
Instructions
Dressing: Shake ingredients in a jar.
Cook ptoatoes: Boil potatoes until tender. Drain and leave to fully cool. Slice into halves.
Blanch beans: Boil green beans until tender or done to your liking. Drain and refresh under cold running water to quickly cool. Drain, pat well to dry.
Assemble the salad:
Arrange the cos leaves on a large, wide plate.
Scatter and layer the remaining ingredients artfully around the plate, finishing with the eggs, olives and chunks of tuna. Drizzle with dressing over and serve!
Notes
1. Potatoes – Regular potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks or slices are totally fine too.2. Olives – Get the best olives you can find. Unpitted kalamata, Ligurian or Nicoise olives in brine or oil are best.3. Tuna – Not all tuna is created equal! Tuna in oil trumps tuna in spring water.4. Variations: - Instead of tuna, anchovies are common and arguably more traditional. Use around a dozen draped over the salad. Modern versions often turn the salad into a seafood meal by serving a whole seared, rare tuna steak on top of the salad. - Other vegetables sometimes seen in a Nicoise salad: Cucumber, capsicum, artichokes, broad bean (fava beans), red onion, eschalots, radishes. Soft herbs are also sometimes included such as parsley or basil.