Salads are usually a good choice when it’s hot out, and since we’re currently in the middle of summer (here in the U.S.), 2-3: Salad Niçoise (pronounced nee-swah) might be a good choice for an upcoming meal. Plus, it primarily uses readily-available canned/jarred ingredients, which can be helpful for both budgets and pandemic shopping.
Salade niçoise is a well-known dish (like the last recipe I covered, 14-8: Baked Alaska), and there are many different versions of it out there. Even Simply Delicious alludes to the different variations in their blurb above– although what they insist as a “must” (eggs, tuna, olives) seems to be up to interpretation.
Quick prep time, no need to use the stove or oven–this is an easy summer recipe that will actually keep you full for a while. It’s even keto-friendly (if you 86 the potatoes)!
Ingredients. This salad is already technically pescatarian, but I had some “fish-free tuna” I wanted to try out, so this might be the perfect opportunity to do so. I’m also going to swap in capers for the anchovies, to keep that briny taste without the need for actual fish (which is kind of a bummer, I actually really like anchovies).
So we’ve now made this dish vegetarian, but not vegan since I was still using real hard-boiled eggs at this point. If I wanted to make it vegan, I’d probably swap the eggs for some baked tofu or seitan.
Prepping the tomatoes–there’s a few more than the recommended three since I used the cherry ones. I think they are better for salads anyway.
Lettuce is “plated” (I cheated and used bagged lettuce–I’m usually big on doing it myself), and garnished with the tomatoes and capers.
Peeled the hardboiled eggs and quartered them.
“Tuna” is put on the salad (it’s close, but not quite the real thing) along with the cooked potatoes.
Mixed up the dressing in a small bowl–I prefer to do this in a blender/food processor if possible, but they always have you do it with such small amounts that it’s just easier to do it in a bowl with a fork.
Naked salad waiting to be dressed.
Final plate. I feel like my swaps still kept to the original spirit of the dish, especially since the core of the dish seems to be interpreting a handful of ingredients however you choose. So here’s my take on it–what’s going to go in yours?
Grade: A
