Individual Tuna Niçoise Salads
Crisp lettuce is topped with tuna, potatoes, green beans, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, onions, olives, and a homemade lemon-garlic vinaigrette for a fresh and beautiful main-dish salad that's perfect for summer!
Servings: 2
Estimated Calories: 626
Ingredients
For the Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice, about 1 lemon
- ½ tablespoon honey, or to taste
- ½ clove garlic, finely minced
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¾ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- ¾ teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
- salt and black pepper, to taste
For the Salad
- ½ pound small red potatoes, about 6 potatoes, each about 1½ inches in diameter
- ¼ pound fresh green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 4 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 (5-ounce) can solid pack light tuna in olive oil, drained and broken into chunks (see Note below)
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, halved (see Note below)
- ½ cup halved grape tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes
- 6 pitted kalamata olives
- 6 pitted castelvetrano olives
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onions
- salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Make the Vinaigrette
- Place all of the vinaigrette ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until well-combined. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. Set aside.Alternately, you can whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Cook the Potatoes
- Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan (I use a 3-quart pot) and cover with cold water by about an inch. Salt the water generously (I use about ½ tablespoon of kosher salt).
- Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 12 to 15 minutes.Don't overcook the potatoes; they should be tender but not mushy or falling apart.
- Remove the potatoes from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and place in a colander (don't empty the water from the pot because we will be using the same water to cook the green beans). Immediately rinse the potatoes with cold water for about 2 minutes, then place them on a plate and allow them to continue cooling while you cook the beans.You don't have to completely cool the potatoes. In fact, it's good if they're still just a litlle bit warm when you assemble the salad because they'll soak in the dressing better.
Cook the Green Beans
- Add the green beans to the same boiling water that you cooked the potatoes in. Once the water comes back up to a boil, cook them for 3 minutes.Don't overcook the beans. They should still have a nice bit of crunch and a vibrant green color.
- While the beans are cooking, make an ice water bath by putting ice cubes and water in a bowl.
- Immediately remove the beans from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and put them in the ice water bath until completely cooled.
- Remove the beans from the ice water, place them on a plate lined with paper towels, and pat them dry.
Assemble the Salads
- To assemble each salad:Place half of the romaine lettuce on a dinner-sized plate, then arrange half of the remaining salad ingredients on top of the lettuce.I put the tuna in the middle of the plate and then arrange the potatoes, green beans, eggs, tomatoes, olives, and red onions around it. Season the salad with salt and pepper to taste.
- Drizzle each salad with half of the vinaigrette (if needed, be sure to give it a quick shake to recombine first).
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- To make the most efficient use of your time, prep the other salad ingredients while waiting for the potatoes and beans to cook.
- If you need to make hard-boiled eggs, start making them first since they will take the longest, and you can move on to the other steps while they are cooking and cooling.
- Use whatever method you prefer, or try my Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs, Steamed Hard-Boiled Eggs (they peel so easy both ways!).
- Or you can take a shortcut and buy pre-made hard-boiled eggs from the grocery store.
- You can use any vinaigrette you prefer, homemade or store-bought.
- For the tuna, I use and recommend solid pack light tuna in olive oil because it's more moist and has great flavor than albacore tuna and tuna packed in water. You can use any kind of tuna you like.
- You can easily scale this recipe down or up to make as many salads as you need.
- If you want to use a different vinaigrette, estimated calories for the salad only without the vinaigrette are 365.
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