Chef Juliette
The Seasoning of Salads
Five dressings, one governing lesson: match fat and acid to the salad itself, from tender lettuce under fresh cream to bitter dandelion leaves glossed with hot bacon fat.
Culinary Explorer
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Salade Niçoise
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2015, Salade Niçoise, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Salade Niçoise in its grand-kitchen form: equal measures of French beans, potato, and tomato, composed with capers, olives, and anchovy, then glossed with oil and vinegar for a generous cold supper.
Salads
French
Outdoor Dining
Picnic
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
20 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
Salade Niçoise (Nice-style composed salad) teaches proportion before embellishment. Know one thing before you touch the pan: in this particular grand-kitchen reading, French beans, potato dice, and quartered tomato stand in equal quantity, and none should dissolve into another. It is a salade composée, a composed salad, not a bowl to toss until its edges blur.
The entry assumed a garde-manger with cooked vegetables waiting in brigade trays and enough hands to arrange each plate to order. What changes at home is scale and station work, not formula: weigh 350 grams of each principal vegetable after trimming, cook them with one saucepan, and arrange everything on one family platter. The ready trays were scaffolding and can go. The equal proportion, pitted olives, capers, anchovy, and final oil-and-vinegar seasoning are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Done properly, the beans remain green and crisp-tender, the potato dice keep their corners, and the tomatoes give their juice only when bitten. Capers and little black olives scatter through the vegetables, anchovy fillets lie proudly across the top, and vinaigrette gives everything a light gloss. The step that matters most is separate cooking: beans must retain their snap, while potatoes must become tender without losing their shape.
Salade Niçoise belongs to Nice and the Comté de Nice, whose Mediterranean larder gives the dish tomatoes, small dark olives, anchovies, and olive oil. Many Niçois cooks defend a raw-vegetable reading and reject boiled beans and potatoes entirely, which is why arguments over the salad remain unusually fierce. The grand-kitchen branch recorded here traveled through hotel and bistro kitchens, fixing equal quantities of French beans, potato, and tomato into a composed salad with capers, olives, and anchovy.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
haricots verts (French beans)
Quantity
3½ cups (350 g)
trimmed
waxy potato
Quantity
2⅓ cups (350 g)
peeled and cut into ½-inch (1.5 cm) dice
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
2 cups (350 g)
cored and quartered
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 20 g)
drained
small black olives
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 75 g)
pitted
oil-packed anchovy fillets
Quantity
8 fillets (about ¼ cup / 30 g)
drained
extra-virgin olive oil
Quantity
6 tablespoons (90 ml / 82 g)
red wine vinegar
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ tablespoons (22 ml / 27 g)
divided, mostly for the cooking water
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| haricots verts (French beans)trimmed | 3½ cups (350 g) |
| waxy potatopeeled and cut into ½-inch (1.5 cm) dice | 2⅓ cups (350 g) |
| ripe tomatoescored and quartered | 2 cups (350 g) |
| capersdrained | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 20 g) |
| small black olivespitted | ½ cup (120 ml / 75 g) |
| oil-packed anchovy filletsdrained | 8 fillets (about ¼ cup / 30 g) |
| extra-virgin olive oil | 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 82 g) |
| red wine vinegar | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| fine sea saltdivided, mostly for the cooking water | 1½ tablespoons (22 ml / 27 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •4-quart saucepan
- •Large bowl for cold water
- •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
- •Rimmed tray
- •Broad shallow serving platter
- •Small whisk
Instructions
- 1
Blanch the beans
Bring a 4-quart saucepan of water to a full boil and season it with 2 teaspoons of the measured salt. Add the haricots verts and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, until bright green and crisp-tender, with no raw squeak when you bite one. Lift them into a bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking, then drain. If they have softened further than intended, cool them immediately and handle them only once during assembly; you cannot restore the snap, but you can prevent them from breaking.
- 2
Simmer the potatoes
Discard the bean water and cool the saucepan briefly. Add the potato dice, cover them by 1 inch with fresh cold water, and season with another 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring the water slowly to a bare simmer and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until a small knife enters with slight resistance and the corners remain clean. Drain at once and spread the dice on a tray without stirring. If their edges begin to crumble, stop cooking immediately, cool them untouched, and place the broken pieces beneath the intact dice when composing the platter. Ça se rattrape.
- 3
Cool and dry
Spread the beans on a clean towel and pat them thoroughly dry. Let the potatoes cool until barely warm, then blot away any surface moisture without crushing them. Set the quartered tomatoes cut-side down on another towel for 5 minutes. Water left on any of the three vegetables dilutes the vinaigrette, so this quiet drying step earns its place.
- 4
Whisk the vinaigrette
Whisk the red wine vinegar with ¼ teaspoon of the measured salt until the grains dissolve. Pour in the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking until the vinaigrette, an emulsion of vinegar and oil, becomes glossy and lightly thickened. There is no mustard, garlic, or herb in this entry. If the vinaigrette separates while it waits, whisk it again just before pouring.
- 5
Compose the salad
Arrange the beans, cooled potato dice, and quartered tomatoes on a broad, shallow platter in loose neighboring bands, allowing the colors to overlap without tossing them together. Scatter the capers and pitted olives evenly across the vegetables, then lay the anchovy fillets over the top. This composition is the source's decoration, and it lets every ingredient remain recognizable.
- 6
Season and serve
Whisk the vinaigrette once more and spoon it slowly over the whole platter, paying particular attention to the potatoes. Rest the salad for 5 minutes, then spoon any dressing gathered at the bottom back over the vegetables. Taste a bean, a potato dice, and a piece of tomato together before adding any remaining salt, because the anchovies, capers, and olives already carry plenty. Serve cool rather than refrigerator-cold. À table!
Chef Tips
- •This recipe follows the grand-kitchen entry exactly in character: equal French beans, potato, and tomato, then capers, pitted olives, anchovies, oil, and vinegar. Tuna, eggs, lettuce, peppers, mustard, and garlic belong to other readings, not this one.
- •Choose a waxy potato such as Charlotte, fingerling, or Yukon Gold. A floury baking potato drinks beautifully in a purée but collapses into rubble here; the clean dice are part of the composition.
- •Small black olives from Nice are ideal, though the finest are often sold with their stones. Pit them yourself if necessary, because the source specifically calls for stoned olives and nobody wants dentistry at lunch.
- •The tomatoes must smell ripe before the knife reaches them. If the market offers only pale, woolly ones, postpone this salad and make salade de pommes de terre aux anchois instead; canned tomatoes have many honest uses, but this is not one of them.
- •Serve with a dry white or rosé from Bellet, the vineyard country above Nice. The wine's freshness suits the tomato and vinegar, while its salt-friendly character keeps pace with anchovy and capers.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans and potatoes can be cooked up to 1 day ahead. Dry them thoroughly, cover them in separate containers, and refrigerate; let them lose their hard refrigerator chill for about 20 minutes before composing the salad.
- •The vinaigrette can be whisked up to 3 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature and whisk again before pouring.
- •Quarter the tomatoes and assemble the platter shortly before serving. For a picnic, transport the vegetables, anchovy garnish, and vinaigrette separately in a cold cooler, then compose and dress the salad on site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 320g)
Calories
330 calories
Total Fat
24 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
6 mg
Sodium
1200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
26 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
7 g
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