How To Go About Making A Salad Nicoise
A Salad Nicoise is more commonly referred to as a Nicoise Salad with the Nicoise being pronounced as “ni-suaz”. This particular salad originates from the Nice region of France and consists of a number of different ingredients the details of which we provide below. However there are some restaurants which although offer a Salad Nicoise it is not what would be considered to be the classic version. Often they will include rice, potatoes, pasta, cheese or cooked vegetables into their recipe.
But the real beauty of this salad is that not only is relatively easy to prepare and make but the way in which the ingredients are presented. Not only does it contain lots of color and texture but it is full of flavors which combine well together. Below we list the ingredients as well as provide step by step instructions so that you can have a go at making this particular salad for yourself.
The ingredients you will need in order to make a Salad Nicoise to serve four people are as follows:- 1. 10 large and ripe tomatoes 2. 1 clove of garlic 3. 1 large cucumber 4. 1 green and one red pepper 5. 6 spring onions 6. 12 anchovy fillets which are in olive oil 7. 125g of black olives 8. 4 eggs that have been hard boiled 9. 90ml of olive oil (extra virgin is best) 10. 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar 11. Juice of one lemon 12. Assorted salad leaves (cos, rocket etc) plus a small amount of fresh Basil. Now let us go through the steps you will need to take in order to make your Salad Nicoise.
Step 1 - You should take the tomatoes and cut them into six pieces each and then put this on a dish before sprinkling with a little salt. Doing this will help to remove some of the excess juices in the tomatoes which could cause the salad to become soggy and limp. Whilst you are preparing the tomatoes it is good idea to also get the eggs ready. In order to get good hard boiled eggs you should aim to leave them in the boiling water for around 5 minutes.
Step 2 - You need to now take the cucumber and cut it in half down its complete length. After cutting in half take a spoon and scoop out as many of the seeds inside. Once you have removed as many of the seeds you need to then slice each half of the cucumber which has not been peeled up. Make sure that each slice you cut is not to thin or thick. After you have finished preparing the cucumber you can now slice up the peppers and the spring onions. It is best if you can slice these two ingredients for the salad as thinly as possible.
Step 3 - Take the garlic clove remove the outer layer and then cut this in half and rub them around the inside of your salad bowl. If you are able to use a wooden bowl for placing the salad in.
Step 4 - As soon as you are ready to serve the salad, take your salad leave and lay these over the base of the bowl. The tomatoes that you left to drain can now be used and laid on top of the leaves along with the hard boiled eggs, which have been cut, into quarters. Then onto this, you need to place the peppers, spring onions and cucumber, as well as the anchovy fillets, which should have been drained. Then over the top, you scatter the olives.
Step 5 - The final thing you need to do before you can serve the Salad Nicoise to family or guests is make the dressing. In order to do this you take the lemon juice, olive oil and red wine vinegar and place in a bowl or jar before adding a small amount of freshly ground black pepper and salt to season. Once all the ingredients are together mix until well combined and then very slowly drizzle it over the salad. Finally take the fresh basil leaves and tear them up into pieces and sprinkle over the top of the salad. It really is that simple to make a great tasting Nicoise Salad.
Filed under: Food & Beverage