In the winter I like a salad that feels both fresh and filling, with a few cooked elements throughout. While I’m not always going full baked salad mode, a nice take on a Winter Niçoise Salad usually fits the bill. This is a very close rendition to a classic Niçoise Salad (made popular by the city of Nice in France, thus the name!), but it’s key difference is that is uses winter chicories as the base. This provides both a hint of seasonality, but also a note of bitterness that I love. It balances a Niçoise salad’s traditional briny flavors, while also using a lemon dressing to create another level of contrast.
If you are looking for a winter salad to give you energy while not weighing you down, look no further than a Winter Niçoise. French food is amazing for a reason!
Table of contents
What is a Niçoise Salad?
Niçoise salad (or…Salad Niçoise as they would say in its birthplace) is a salad that originated in Nice, France. French cuisine is largely lauded for its heavier recipes, but in regions further South of Paris, the food is actually quite minimal and focuses on letting fresh ingredients do what they do best – stand alone.
And that’s exactly what the traditional Niçoise Salad does. It is a summer salad, with hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, anchovies or tuna, cucumber or green beans, olive oil and in some rare cases, a vinaigrette. The ingredients vary, but the presentation usually involved the ingredients being displayed in sections on top of the salad bowl or plate.
This mimics the traditional Niçoise Salad, but of course, with a few key tweaks that make it suitable for winter!
Ingredients you will need for this Winter Niçoise Salad
This salad includes the salad itself, but also the Herbs de Provence dressing. Here is everything you will need to make it:
- 2 medium new potatoes, 200 grams / 7 ounces
- 1/2 small red onion, 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 cup green beans, 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- 4 large eggs
- 1 small head of radicchio or butter lettuce, 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- 1 small green endive, 50 grams / 1.75 ounces
- 1/4 cup castelvetrano olives chopped
- 4 ounces jarred tuna preferably in olive oil
For the Herbs de Provence Dressing
- 1 lemon or 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
- 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
Why is blanching important in this recipe?
Traditionalists will argue over if blanching is necessary (or even part of) a traditional Niçoise. For this recipe, I want my potatoes cooked but chilled, my green beans blanched, and my eggs boiled. All of which can easily be done with an ice bath at our side! While only the green beans are technically blanched, having an ice bath available does a few things:
- It helps crisp up and mellow out the red onion (it’s like magic, I promise).
- It shocks the potato to cool it and also prevent it from cooking further.
- The green beans can easily blanch alongside the other ingredients.
- Eggs don’t need a separate bowl to shock them, the ice bath is already ready!
All that to say, I think cooked ingredients make this salad better, and you only need one ice bath, so why not?
What swaps can be made in this winter salad?
I’ve heard you all like swaps, good thing I have them! See below for different options for you winter Niçoise salad:
- POTATOES – you can swap these with other starchy vegetables like carrots, rutabaga or parsnips, or you can even omit them if you aren’t feeling like it!
- RED ONION – yellow onion, sweet white onion, or scallions are great subs.
- GREEN BEANS – swap these for asparagus or snap peas!
- EGGS – either add more tuna, swap in edamame, or skip these all together.
- RADICCHIO + ENDIVE – butter lettuce, escarole, romaine, or any leafy lettuce will do here!
- CASTELVETRANO OLIVES – any olive can be a good substitute, but if you don’t like olives, try capers or anchovies to get the same brininess.
- JARRED TUNA – canned tuna is also an option, or tinned fish like sardines or white anchovies are also great.
- LEMON JUICE – swap for white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar!
- MUSTARD – a whole grain mustard can be a swap, or you can use honey if you’d like a sweeter dressing that still emulsifies.
- HERBS DE PROVENCE – a dried mix of oregano, thyme and marjoram is a great sub for these!
Looking for other salad recipes?
Here are a few favorites from the site!
And that’s it for this Winter Niçoise Salad!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3
Winter Niçoise Salad
Equipment
- 1 large pot
- 1 spider
- 1 Whisk
- 1 rasp-style grater
Ingredients
- 2 medium new potatoes 200 grams / 7 ounces
- 1/2 small red onion 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 cup green beans 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- 4 large eggs
- 1 small head of radicchio or butter lettuce 100 grams / 3.5 ounces
- 1 small green endive 50 grams / 1.75 ounces
- 1/4 cup castelvetrano olives chopped
- 4 ounces jarred tuna preferably in olive oil
For the Herbs de Provence Dressing
- 1 lemon or 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
- 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt plus more to taste
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt it liberally with about a tablespoon of salt.
- Add the potatoes to the water and boil until fork tender, 12-15 minutes.
- While the potatoes are boiling, prepare a large ice bath. You'll be using it for a few things so make sure it is in a large bowl.
- Thinly slice the red onion and add it to the ice bath. This will make them mellow, crisp, and easier on the stomach.
- Trim the edges of the green beans and set aside.
- When the potatoes are tender, use a spider to transfer them to the ice bath to cool them.
- Add the green beans to the boiling water and boil for 1-2 minutes or until bright green in color. Add these to the ice bath as well to blanch them.
- Add the 4 eggs to boiling water and boil for 7 minutes. See Note.
- While the eggs are boiling, remove the vegetables from the ice bath and pat them dry with a lint-free dish towel. Chop the potatoes into bite-sized cubes.
- Transfer the eggs into the ice bath to shock them when they are done boiling.
- Core the radicchio and tear the leaves into a large bowl. Tear the endive leaves into the same bowl.
- To make the dressing, whisk together the juice of one lemon (3 tablespoons), 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon Herbs de Provence, and 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Whisking constantly, gradually drizzle in 4 tablespoons of olive oil until the dressing is smooth and emulsified. Taste and add more salt or olive oil as preferred.
- Drizzle half of this dressing onto the radicchio and endives and toss. Portion this into two bowls.
- To plate, top the bowls with equal servings of the red onion, chopped potatoes, blanched green beans, castelvetrano olives, and jarred tuna. Peel and halve the eggs and add two to each bowl.
- Drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve!
Well, this was a treat! I had to substitute good olives for those little olives with the red pimento and then I forgot to put them in anyway so I just snacked on them 🙂 Everything else was amazing. And I had everything in my fridge or in my pantry. Thanks for a great recipe!
Loved this recipe! It was quick, easy, filling, and something I would never think of putting together (like most of Justine’s recipes :))