This classic french Niçoise Salad is an entire meal on one platter, with tuna, potatoes, boiled eggs, and vegetables, all with a bold Dijon vinaigrette.
Once you’ve learned how to make Nicoise Salad at home, it will surely find its way to your table over and over again!
What is Nicoise Salad?
Salad Niçoise (pronounced as “nee-suahz”) is a hearty and filling French Salad, composed of cooked tuna, hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, and green beans (or haricot vert), that makes an amazing meal. This is in part due to the delicious homemade Nicoise dressing that pulls all of the ingredients together.
The name of this salad comes from the location of its origin, which is Nice, a French city on the Mediterranean sea.
The way this salad is put together is much like the American Cobb Salad, where the ingredients are cooked and artfully arranged on a bed of lettuce before being served.
If you have extra hard-boiled eggs after making this salad, use them to make Deviled Eggs!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A Classic French Recipe – Pretend like you’re eating dinner on the French Riviera, with this simple salad that originated there.
- Salad as a Meal – Salads don’t need to be just veggies and dressing! Nicoise has so much protein from tuna and hard-boiled eggs, plus hearty baby potatoes. This is a salad that will really fill you up!
- Step by Step Instructions – As usual, I’m giving you step-by-step directions and plenty of photos so that you can understand how to make Niçoise salad perfectly from beginning to end.
Ingredients In Nicoise Salad
Here’s what you need to make this classic French Salad
- Lettuce: Chopped romaine lettuce is my choice for this salad, but you can use other greens if you like.
- Baby Potatoes: Red or yellow waxy new potatoes are best.
- Fresh Green Beans, or haricot vert if you can find them.
- Cherry Tomatoes: chop small tomatoes in half, or use larger tomatoes and dice them into bite-sized pieces.
- Red Onion
- Olives: Use Nicoise olives, or kalamata olives if you can’t find those.
- Tuna: I prefer to use tuna packed in oil for this salad. You can also use freshly cooked tuna steaks or tuna packed in water though.
Ingredients in French Nicoise Salad Dressing
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- White Wine Vinegar
- Dijon Mustard
- Salt and Pepper
- Finely Minced Garlic
- Finely Minced Shallot
- Minced Capers – since capers are so tiny, they can be hard to mince. I think it’s easiest to smash them flat first with your hand, then chop them.
- Finely Minced Anchovy Fillets, Fresh Parsley, and Fresh Basil – Optional, but delicious!
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How To Prep Ingredients for Nicoise Salad
- Green Beans: Trim and slice the beans in half. Blanch the green beans in boiling water, then chill in ice water. I have full instructions for how to blanch green beans if you need more info!
- Eggs: Steam the eggs or use your preferred method for hard-boiling them. Peel and slice the eggs into quarters.
- Potatoes: Cut the baby potatoes in half, then add them to a saucepan and cover them with cold water so that there are two inches of water over the potatoes. Add salt, bring to a boil, and cook until soft but not falling apart.
- Red Onion: Slice a small red onion thinly into half-circle pieces. Soak the sliced onions in cold water for 20 minutes or longer to make them less harsh.
How to Make Nicoise Salad Dressing
- Mix it Up! Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small jar. Add the lid, and shake until creamy and emulsified.
- About the Optional Ingredients: Minced anchovy fillets are listed as optional, but I highly suggest you try them in this recipe! They aren’t fishy, but instead add a great depth of flavor, just like they do in Caesar dressing. Fresh parsley and basil are also optional, but delicious.
How to Make Nicoise Salad
Now that everything is prepped (in France, this is called “mis en place”!), you can put the ingredients together to make the most delicious French salad!
- Dress the Potatoes: Add the cooked potatoes to a large bowl and toss them with 1/4 of the dressing so that they start to soak up the flavor.
- Arrange the Ingredients: To a large bowl or platter, spread out the lettuce, then arrange the seasoned potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, onions, tuna chunks, olives, and eggs.
- Dress and Serve: Drizzle the rest of the dressing over the salad, and toss gently right before serving so that each serving has a little bit of everything in it.
Tip!
I always start by adding dressing to the potatoes. This way, every piece has a chance to soak up the delicious flavor!
Recipe Tips
- Start the potatoes with cold water. When boiling potatoes, you want to fill the pot with cold water, rather than hot. This lets them cook more evenly.
- Don’t forget to salt the potato water too! For even more flavor, you can add a bay leaf to the pot.
- For perfectly boiled eggs, I highly suggest that you steam them. If you use my method for steaming eggs, you’ll find that they are super easy to peel.
- I like to buy whole olives and remove the pits myself using a cherry pitter. They are less expensive and more flavorful this way.
Storing Tips
You should enjoy this salad shortly after making it, but leftovers will stay in the fridge for up to 2 days. It’s best to store the ingredients separately if possible.
Nicoise salad is also easy to make ahead!
Prep the eggs, green beans, potatoes, onions, and dressing up to a day ahead of time and keep them in the fridge. Then assemble the salad when you’re ready to serve it.
What To Serve With Nicoise Salad
This salad with tuna, potatoes, and veggies is already a full meal, and in the summer I often serve this on its own with a fresh baguette and a bottle of Rosé.
For dessert, enjoy something with a French influence, and make Croissant Bread Pudding, Heart-shaped Macarons, or a rustic Strawberry Galette.
Recipe FAQs
If you can’t find French Nicoise olives, Kalamata olives are a good substitute with a similar flavor.
If you’d like to, feel free to add grilled tuna steaks to your salad. Canned tuna is traditional though, as it’s an easy to find and inexpensive ingredient.
Of course! You can adjust this recipe any way you’d like to make it perfect for you and your family.
Enjoy this classic Nicoise Salad recipe! It’s the perfect summer meal that I know your whole family will love.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Niçoise Salad
Equipment
- Glass jar
- Saucepan
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 6 hard-boiled eggs peeled and sliced into quarters
- 1 pound (450 grams) baby potatoes yellow or red, sliced in half
- 8 ounces (225 grams) fresh green beans trimmed, sliced in half and blanched, 225g
- 1 heart romaine lettuce chopped
- 8 ounces (225 grams) cherry tomatoes or any other tomatoes, halved if cherry, or quartered if bigger
- 1 small red onion sliced
- 2 5-ounce (280 grams) cans tuna preferably oil-packed chunks, drained
- ½ cup (100 grams) Nicoise olives or kalamata olives – pitted
For the French Vinaigrette (Nicoise Dressing)
- 2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) capers minced
- 1 tablespoon (20 grams) Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) white wine vinegar
- ½ cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Optional ingredients
- 2 anchovy fillets finely minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley optional
- 1 tablespoon chopped basil optional
Instructions
- Start by steaming the eggs (or use your preferred method for hard-boiled eggs) and blanching the green beans. Soak the sliced red onion in cold water if desired to make it less harsh.
- To cook the potatoes: Add potatoes to a saucepan or a pot and cover by 2 inches with cold water. Add salt, bring to a boil, and cook until soft but not falling apart.
- Make the dressing: In a jar combine the dressing ingredients, and shake until creamy and emulsified. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with ¼ of the dressing.
- To arrange the salad on a serving platter or serving bowl, start by adding the lettuce, followed by the seasoned potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, onions, tuna chunks, olives, and finally the eggs.
- Drizzle the salad dressing all over the salad and serve.
Notes:
- Start the potatoes with cold water. When boiling potatoes, you want to fill the pot with cold water, rather than hot. This lets them cook more evenly.
- Don’t forget to salt the potato water too! For even more flavor, you can add a bay leaf to the pot.
- For perfectly boiled eggs, I highly suggest that you steam them. If you use my method for steaming eggs, you’ll find that they are super easy to peel.
- I have a whole post about how to blanch green beans too!
- I like to buy whole olives and remove the pits myself using a cherry pitter. They are less expensive and more flavorful this way.
- To Store: You should enjoy this salad shortly after making it, but leftovers will stay in the fridge for up to 2 days. It’s best to store the ingredients separately if possible.
- To Make Ahead: Prep the eggs, green beans, potatoes, onions, and dressing up to a day ahead of time and keep them in the fridge. Then assemble the salad when you’re ready to serve it.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Sharina says
I enjoyed assembling this Nicoise salad! So easy and delicious! We can’t get enough of it! Can’t wait to bring this to our potluck!
Little Sunny Kitchen says
Thanks for the great review, Sharina! Glad to hear everyone enjoyed this salad!
Andie says
This salad was the perfect spring dinner salad! Light but also hearty and filling! My family loved it! Thank you for sharing!
Little Sunny Kitchen says
You’re welcome, Andie! I’m so happy to hear you and your family loved it!