Try the Nutritious & Cleansing Niçoise

Sometimes I just crave a nutritious and cleansing dinner, especially near the end of the week when a fun-filled/food-filled weekend is fast approaching. I love salads but I usually prefer to pair them with protein or grains. There is one salad that pretty much has it all - an almost forgotten Niçoise Salad.  


Niçoise Salad

I like to think of Niçoise Salad as the "prettier" version of an American Cobb Salad (though I must admit that the Cobb is just as good). It is a specialty of Cote D'Azur and named for the City of Nice. If you find the salad tedious (in relation to other types of salads), you can prep for the dressing and most of the ingredients hours or the day before and store them in separate ziplock bags. All you have to do before you eat is cook the remaining ingredients and toss all of it in the herb-infused olive oil dressing!

Niçoise Salad (recipe from Simply Recipes)
Serves 4-6
Ingredients

Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh basil leaves
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad

• 2-3 cans of tuna
• 6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and either halved or quartered
• 10 small new red potatoes (each about 2 inches in diameter, about 1 1/4 pounds total), each potato scrubbed and quartered
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium heads Boston lettuce or butter lettuce, leaves washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 3 small ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into eighths
• 1 small red onion, sliced very thin (soak in cold water for a few minutes to get rid of the sharp taste)
• 8 ounces green beans, stem ends trimmed and each bean halved crosswise
• 1/4 cup niçoise olives (you can substitue kalamata if you can't find niçoise, but they are usually available at the store's salad bar)

Recipe

1. Whisk lemon juice, oil, thyme, shallot, basil, oregano, and mustard in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Bring potatoes and 4 quarts cold water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and cook until potatoes are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer potatoes to a medium bowl with a slotted spoon (do not discard boiling water). Toss warm potatoes with 1/4 cup vinaigrette; set aside.
3. While potatoes are cooking, toss lettuce with 1/4 cup vinaigrette in large bowl until coated. Arrange bed of lettuce on a large plate or serving platter (yes, I used a silver platter). Coat tuna with vinaigrette. Mound tuna in center of lettuce. Toss tomatoes, red onion, 3 tablespoons vinaigrette, and salt and pepper to taste in bowl; arrange tomato-onion mixture on the lettuce bed. Arrange reserved potatoes in a mound at edge of lettuce bed.
4. Return water to boil; add 1 tablespoon salt and green beans. Cook until tender but crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain beans, transfer to reserved ice water, and let stand until just cool, about 30 seconds; dry beans well. Toss beans, 3 tablespoons vinaigrette, and salt and pepper to taste; arrange in a mound at edge of lettuce bed.
5. Arrange hard boiled eggs and olives in mounds on the lettuce bed. Drizzle eggs with remaining 2 tablespoons dressing, drizzle entire salad with more dressing (if there is any left), and serve immediately.