Salade niçoise: a taste of the south of France

I like this kind of rustic, bold, wholesome dishes. That will make a dietician quite happy. Plenty of fresh and colourful veggies, a bit carb (potatoes), a bit of protein (eggs, tuna, anchovies) and a refreshing vinaigrette to dress the whole thing.

I usually just mix all the ingredients but I am going for a posh presentation today and I hope you like the pictures.

A vegetarian version of this salad (omitting the tuna and anchovies and sometimes the green beans) is a very popular summer dish in Algeria best eaten outside by the sea side or on a picnic.

I am not going to be very accurate with quantities and I leave it to your personal taste.


Ingredients:

½ cucumber (thinly sliced)
1 to 2 medium tomatoes
1 to 2 potatoes boiled or steamed cut into chunks
½ romaine lettuce or 2 gems salad
2 boiled eggs cut into quarters
1 handful of steamed or boiled green beans
1 tin of tuna chunks
6 to 10 anchovies in oil
Salt
Black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
Optional: 1 tsp mustard

Steps:

1.     Make the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil, lemon juice and mustard. Mix thoroughly (I make it in a recycled small jar). Season with salt and some black pepper and keep aside.

2.      make a layer with the lettuce leaves (washed and dried from water using a clean kitchen towel)

3.     Layer the rest of the ingredients as seen on my pictures.

4.     Drizzle the vinaigrette all over, leave to absorb for few minutes and enjoy.

5.     You can also mix all the ingredients apart from the eggs, serve on a big platter and decorate with the eggs quarters