Niçoise is just about my favourite salad. And since it’s winter back home in the UK and pretty cold, I thought it would be good to do a great warm(ish) salad that would be healthy yet more cold-weather friendly. Hence this beautiful Seared Tuna Salad Niçoise.

There is a lot of debate out there as to what goes in a Salad Niçoise. To me the staples are fish, green beans, egg olives and potato. And for me that fish is always Tuna! This is based only on my experience of eating (lots) of Salad Niçoise and not my expertise in French cooking. Usually I make this with tinned tuna which is nice and easy, but this time I thought it would be great to have a meaty fresh tuna steak. Yum! If you time everything right then you’ve got a beautiful warm salad in front of you – with the cooked tuna and steaming potatoes and green beans.

I cooked the tuna in a griddle pan which gives those beautiful seared lines, but you can absolutely use a plain old frying pan or skillet. Did you clock the salt in the picture too? It’s a Himalayan salt mix my good friend brought me back from Bhutan. It’s got parsley and edible Calendula flowers in it. It just looks so pretty and is pretty good salt too. 

To try and minimise washing up for this recipe I’ve described in the instructions how I use just one saucepan to cook the eggs, beans and potatoes. If you time everything right this will also help you get everything coordinated ready to serve up hot.

If you want to cook a couple of portions of this and save for another day then store the cooked potatoes and green beans in a separate container in the fridge and warm them up quickly in a microwave. I personally would rather cook the tuna fresh rather than sear it and then put it in the fridge. It does only take a few minutes to cook. However, you are ok to do that as long as you get it in the fridge asap after cooking and cooling and don’t leave it any longer than 2 days (or whatever the expiry date was on the tuna you bought – if you are cooking it so it’s still rare inside.) 

Enjoy! 

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Seared Tuna Salad Niçoise

Recipe by carolineCourse: SaladCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Easy

Servings

1

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

500

kcal

A fresh and warm Seared Tuna Salad Niçoise. Served with fresh vegetables, baby new potatoes and tossed in a mustard vinaigrette.

Ingredients

• 1 large egg

• 100g new potatoes, halved or quartered depending on the size

• 75g sliced green beans

• 1 medium tuna steak (around 125g weight)

• large handful of green lettuce, washed and torn. I used oak leaf but you can choose another variety if you prefer.

• 25g pitted black olives, halved

• 4-5 cherry tomatoes, halved

• 20g red onion, finely sliced

• For the dressing:

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Directions

• Add the egg(s) to a small pan of cold water. Bring to the boil and start to time once the water reaches boiling point. Cook for 5 minutes if you like the yolks very lightly set (as I do, see pictures), or 7 minutes if you prefer firm.
• Once the egg(s) is cooked remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of cold water. Once it’s cooled enough then peel and slice into quarters.
• Add the potatoes to the boiling water in the pan. Set a timer for 7 minutes.
• Make the dressing. Combine the olive oil, mustard, and apple cider vinegar and whisk together well.
• Once the potatoes have been cooking for 7 minutes add the green beans to the pan with the potatoes and continue to boil for a further 5 minutes.
• Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in a griddle or frying pan. Once it is smoking hot add the tuna and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side depending on how rare you like the tuna cooked.
• Once the potatoes and green beans are cooked, drain and transfer to a bowl with the lettuce, olives, cherry tomatoes and red onion. Pour over the dressing and toss everything together.
• Add the salad to a plate, slice the tuna and place on top and dot the egg quarters around the salad. Serve!

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