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This Nicoise Salad with canned salmon is elegant, delicious, and super easy to assemble.
Best Nicoise Salad Recipe
Growing up in Spain, we ate nicoise salads often, so they are near and dear to my heart. Now that I have kids of my own, I wanted to recreate the salad in a way everyone could enjoy, so I swapped the anchovies for salmon, French beans for steamed green beans, added roasted potatoes, and a homemade dressing.
The results? A protein-packed, healthy meal that my kids love and it makes me feel like a sophisticated woman. Mission accomplished.
Ingredients
What you need to make this delicious salad is chopped Romaine lettuce (mixed greens, arugula, or another type of lettuce also works), cherry tomatoes, steamed green beans, baby potatoes, salmon (canned, cooked leftovers, or you can make some quick air fryer salmon bites), hard-boiled eggs, and kalamata olives.
How to Make Salmon Nicoise Salad
If using a homemade dressing, make it first. Then, place the chopped lettuce into 4 serving bowls or plates as I show you in the video below. Top each with tomatoes, steamed green beans, potatoes, salmon, eggs, and olives, making rows of each ingredient. Drizzle the salads with the vinaigrette and toss to combine.
Laura’s Tips for the Best Nicoise Salad
Whether the salmon is baked in foil, pan-seared, cooked in the air fryer, or comes straight from a pouch or can, you can use it up in this recipe. For a quick lunch, I’ll grab a pouch from the pantry. When I have more time, or I want to meal prep this recipe, I’ll cook up that frozen salmon I completely forgot about.
Traditionally, nicoise salad is served cold. This might work for some, but for my family? HAH! I’ll take mine steamed, thank you. I know I’m breaking Nicoise salad rules, but when does one follow all the rules when building a great salad?
I’m going to follow the rules on this one; it is much easier to assemble and creates an impressive and visually appealing dish when you layer the ingredients. Also, it’s easier to serve as a family meal. If someone doesn’t like olives they can easily remove them which is more difficult with tossed salads.
Nicoise salad pairs are great with vinaigrettes like the classic red wine vinaigrette, a maple Dijon vinaigrette, a light champagne vinaigrette, a citrus vinaigrette, or a white wine vinaigrette.
Easy Canned Salmon Nicoise Salad
Watch how it’s made:
Ingredients
Vinaigrette Dressing
- 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- juice from ½ lemon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅓ cup olive oil
Nicoise Salad
- 1 head Romaine lettuce heart, chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup green beans, steamed
- ¼ pound red potatoes, roasted and diced
- 2 cans salmon or pouches, drained
- 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives, pitted
- ¼ cup vinaigrette
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- In a medium jar, combine the Dijon mustard, Italian seasoning, red wine vinegar, garlic, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, and olive oil. Top with lid and toss to combine.
Build the Salad:
- Place the chopped lettuce into 2 serving bowls or one large salad bowl. Top with cherry tomatoes, steamed green beans, potatoes, canned salmon, eggs, and olives, making rows of each ingredient.
- Drizzle the salad with the vinaigrette and serve.
Leftovers & work lunch:
- Refrigerate salad dressing leftovers in an airtight container up to 1 week. Store salad leftovers, without having been tossed in dressing, in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- If meal prepping this salad for a work lunch, layer all the ingredients in an airtight container, pack the dressing separately, and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Drizzle the salad dressing right before eating it.
Krista says
loved this warm salmon nicoise salad for lunch yesterday!