I love a good Niçoise salad but the trouble is prepping all of the ingredients in advance and having to reassemble them later. If you happen to have boiled potatoes, blanched green beans, etc and need to use them up, fantastic, but I rarely have all of those ingredients prepped in my refrigerator. I decided to simplify the steps and combine them all in the same way you would prepare a potato salad. The result was tangy, flavorful, and delicious. This keeps for a couple of days just perfectly in the refrigerator and you can pull it out at serving time. It’s a meal on its own but great for a pot luck or as we had it last night, alongside grilled pork.
I actually used just one pot of boiling water for the potatoes, eggs, and green beans. I peeled and chopped the potatoes and put them in a pot and filled it up with water. Then I added 4 eggs which was all that was left in the fridge. Sadly two of them floated to the top which is a bad sign so I discarded those two. I recommend using 4 eggs if you can! I put the pot on the stove and brought it to a boil. Make your dressing while these cook. I think a 6 minute egg is the perfect boiled egg, the yolk will be slightly jammy and soft. After 6 minutes use tongs or a slotted spoon to carefully retrieve your eggs. Set the eggs aside to cool. Allow the potatoes to keep boiling until they are soft...another 10 minutes or so. Now wash and chop your green beans and put them into a large colander. When the potatoes are finished remove them from the stove top and pour the potatoes and boiling water over the green beans into the strainer. This way you have cooked your potatoes, eggs, and green beans all at once! Now rinse your potatoes and beans with a quick blast of water to cool them down and remove the excess starch from the potatoes, allow to cool slightly in the strainer then transfer them to a bowl and stir in your dressing. Place the bowl in the fridge while you prep the other ingredients.
The eggs should now be cold enough to handle, I have found the spoon method to be the easiest way to peel (just google it, basically use a spoon to gently lift the shell…its brilliant). Chop your tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives and add them to the potatoes and green beans. Stir everything well and refrigerate until serving time. If you have any fresh herbs I think that would be a really good addition (basil, parsley, dill, tarragon…whatever you like) but I would add them last so their brightness really shines through. Enjoy!
What you need:
For the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp course ground dijon
juice of one lemon
1 shallot
1.5 tbsp capers
2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Add everything to a jar and whisk.
For the salad:
2 cups potatoes
1 cup green beans
3 or 4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup pitted and halved kalamata olives
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 english cucumber sliced
Salt, pepper, fresh herbs to taste
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