Easy Salade Nicoise Recipe

This Niçoise Salad is my chef-tested take on a Riviera classic—vibrant green beans, creamy potatoes, jammy eggs, ripe tomatoes, briny olives, and high-quality tuna, all dressed in a Dijon vinaigrette that tastes like summer in Nice.

How do I know? When I was 15, I spent a summer on the French Riviera learning French—and learning to eat like the French. My host mom would pack my lunch each morning, and instead of a sandwich, I’d find a Salade Niçoise tucked into my Tupperware. Tuna, eggs, olives, ripe tomatoes, and potatoes—all perfectly balanced with that sharp mustard dressing.

Decades later, after living in France two more times and spending over 10 years working as a personal chef, I still think nothing beats a well-made Niçoise. This version captures everything I loved about that first one, with techniques that are easy to replicate in a home kitchen.

Why You'll Love This Nicoise Salad Recipe

• Great dish to meal prep on the weekend—if you cook your eggs, potatoes, and green beans in advance, you can pull this together in minutes.
• Fantastic as a buffet spread for brunch. Make all the components, lay them out on a platter, and have guests build their own. 
• High in protein, low in carbs, and totally delicious!

What is Salade Nicoise?

Salade niçoise is a salad that originated in Nice, France. It is usually presented as a salade composé (composed salad), which means that the parts of the salad are laid out next to each other on the plate rather than being tossed together in a large bowl.

Traditional ingredients include hard-boiled eggs, nicoise olives, tomatoes, and anchovies. Cooked ingredients such as green beans and potatoes are commonly added to nicoise salads, though not always—and are rejected by nicoise salad purists.

The first nicoise salads appeared in the United States in the 1920s, and since then many American chefs have produced recipes, including Julia Child in 1961 in her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Salade Nicoise Ingredients

• Olives: Nicoise olives are traditional in this salad, but can be difficult to find. I often use dry-cured olives as a substitute. Kalamata olives will work as well.
• Tuna: I prefer jarred tuna as it is very high-quality and tastes less “fishy” than the typical canned tuna. Since you are eating it without blending it with mayonnaise in a tuna salad, the quality of the fish really does come through.
• Anchovies: These are standard in a Nicoise Salad, but of course you can leave them off if anchovies are not for you!
• Potatoes: Any kind of small, creamy potatoes work well for this recipe. New potatoes, small red potatoes, fingerling potatoes. Stay away from using baking potatoes though, as those are too starchy.
• Tomatoes: Slice up large red tomatoes or use cherry tomatoes—just choose the ripest ones you can find.

Nicoise Salad Dressing Ingredients

• Champagne or White Wine Vinegar: feel free to replace this with red wine vinegar or lemon juice. You just need a bit of acid to work with the mustard to create a beautiful salad dressing. 
• Olive Oil: I prefer an extra-virgin olive oil for this dressing.
• Herbes de Provence: If you don't have this spice blend, replace with dried basil, oregano, fennel, rosemary, thyme, or some combination.

How to Make Nicoise Salad

Start by preparing the ingredients that need to be cooked. (If you need to hard boil your eggs, see my instructions below.)

Trim 8 ounces of green beans. Rinse 1 pound of small potatoes, and wipe off any dirt before patting dry with a clean towel. Cut potatoes in half or in quarters, depending on how large they are.

Fill a large saucepan with water to cook your green beans and potatoes. Turn the heat to medium-high and when the water boils, add the green beans. Cook for 5-6 minutes until bright green and just tender.

Use tongs to remove from the water and put in a strainer. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Put your potatoes in the boiling water and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Test them by spearing with a fork. You want the fork to be able to easily pierce through the potato, but not so tender that the fork breaks the potato into mushy pieces.

Drain potatoes when they are done, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

While green beans and potatoes are boiling, slice 1 pint of cherry tomatoes in half and peel and halve 4 hard-boiled eggs.

Next, make the nicoise salad dressing. Whisk together 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar, 1 ½ teaspoons dijon mustard, and ½ teaspoon herbes de provence, then slowly whisk in 5 tablespoons olive oil until dressing emulsifies.

Whisk in ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, taste, and add more seasoning if necessary. 

Now you’re ready for assembly. Arrange the green beans, potatoes, eggs, 2 jars of oil-packed tuna fish, tomatoes, ½ cup olives, and 8 anchovy fillets in a different section on a large platter, and have diners help themselves.

Or, arrange this salad with tuna, potatoes, and green beans by placing a small amount of each ingredient onto each plate. Drizzle with dijon vinaigrette. Alternatively, you can toss the vinaigrette with your ingredients separately before placing them on the plate.

Serving Suggestions for Salad Nicoise

This salad makes the best light lunch. You don’t need much more than a hunk of crusty bread to have a really delicious meal. It’s also delicious paired with a light soup, like this Melon Soup or this Carrot Ginger Soup. If you wanted to include this in a French-inspired brunch, I would pair with Quiche Florentine or this decadent Crab Quiche. And of course, add a Rosé Spritzer or a St. Germain Spritz!

How to Store Nicoise Salad

To store this Niçoise salad, it’s best to store the components separately using airtight containers. The hard-boiled eggs will last 3 days in the refrigerator. The rest of the salad ingredients will last 4-5 days. Refrigerate the dressing separately in a mason jar or other airtight container. It will last for at least a week in the refrigerator.

Tuna Nicoise Salad Recipe FAQS

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

For a fancy upgrade to your nicoise salad, grill some fresh tuna steaks or salmon fillets and use those in place of the tuna.

If the prep for this dish seams onerous, remember that you can do large batches of eggs, green beans, and potatoes, and use them for other meals during the week. They are great ingredients to have pre-prepped in your refrigerator! 

My favorite technique for hard-boiling eggs comes from Cook's Illustrated. Just place your eggs in a saucepan covered by 1 inch of water and heat the water on high. When water comes to a full boil, remove the pan from the heat and cover the pot.

Let the eggs sit in the pot for 10 minutes, while you fill a large bowl with ice water. After 10 minutes, remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place gently into the ice water. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Then you can either dry them off and refrigerate them, or peel if you’re ready to use. 

That said, I bought this rapid egg cooker recently, and I love it! I make hard-boiled eggs now so much more often, because they are so easy to make in this cooker.

If you happen to have leftovers of your steamed potatoes, green beans, and hard-boiled eggs, do try them slathered with a little Roasted Garlic Aioli. Or, put a little Black Garlic Butter on top! And make an extra batch of Niçoise Dressing to use for leftovers or on other green or grain salads.

Other Delicious French Recipes

For more France-inspired dishes, check out my French Recipes Archive. Or go directly to some of these favorites.

Or, if you are looking for salads, don't miss my Spinach Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, my Green Bean Salad with Baked Goat Cheese, my Frisée Salad with Bacon or my Salade de Tomates. This French Asparagus with Eggs salad is another classic.

If you try this Tuna Nicoise Salad recipe, I would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to me.

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