
boiled eggs, olive, fingerling potatoes, green beans, shallots, tuna and tomatoes make up this salad
Its another hot one here in Southern California, which puts me in the mood for some lighter food and given the richness of last weeks duck tacos a few salad days might do me some good. Keeping with the Mediterranean theme that was discussed a few posts back, Salad Niçois with Seared Tuna seemed like a good way to make use of some of the freshly ripened tomatoes from our garden and produce that we’ve received this past week from Imperfect Produce. My local Sprouts has a decent selection of frozen sustainably caught fish and we try to keep some tuna and salmon in the freezer for leaner, lighter protein options.
Salad Niçois is a composed salad with greens, olives (usually Niçois), scallions, tomatoes and boiled eggs with either anchovies or tuna and dressed with olive oil. Sometime back in the 30s recipes started to appear for Salad Niçois with boiled potatoes and green beans. Which I’ve added to my version as well. Putting the salad together involved a little bit of chopping, making the vinaigrette and searing the tuna. I used some leftover fried fingerling potatoes and then boiled eggs for about 6 minutes. During the last few minutes of the eggs boiling, I tossed in some chopped green beans along with a teaspoon of salt to blanch. Then I drained the eggs and green beans and put them into ice cold water to stop the cooking. After a few minutes, I drained the water and added more cold water.
Salad Niçois with Seared Tuna
(serves 2)
6 cups cleaned and chopped greens ( we had hearts of romaine so that’s what I used)
2 scallions chopped
1 cup sliced and cooked fingerling potatoes
⅓ cup olives
2 tomatoes cut into quarters
2 boiled eggs
½ cup cooked chopped green beans
2 4-6 oz tuna steaks
salt and pepper
1 garlic clove
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBS olive oil
lemon juice
4 TBS Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
To start, put the garlic clove, salt and pepper, oregano and lemon juice into a mortar and pestle and crush together until a paste forms. Put into a zip top freezer bag and then add the olive oil. Place the tuna steaks into the bag and rub with the marinade until all sides of the tuna are coved and set aside. Lightly dress the tomatoes, green beans and potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the vinaigrette and let sit while you sear off the tuna. Using a dry non stick skillet on medium high (or on the grill if you have a wire grilling basket), sear the tuna. Don’t try to move the tuna around, when its sufficiently seared it should easily come off the pan to flip on a gas flame this is usually after about 2 minutes. Sear the other. side for about a minute if you prefer your tuna medium rare. Remove from heat and let rest on a cutting board. Assemble the salad either on individual plates or in a large bowl and dress the greens with the remaining dressing. Slice the tuna and add to the salad and serve.
Vinaigrette
1 part cider vinegar
2 parts extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil
Juice of ½ a lemon
½ tsp anchovy paste or 1 anchovy filet
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tsp mayonaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp peppercorns
½ tsp dried oregano
In a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic, oregano and salt together until a past forms. Then move to a small bowl and whisk with all the other ingredients until everything is well combined.