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The classic nicoise salad taken up a notch with baked salmon and a simple Dijon vinaigrette. Get your forks ready because you’re gonna want to eat this!

As pretty as it looks and intriguing as nicoise sounds this meal is incredibly simple to assemble. It’s one of those recipes I like to enjoy for a light and satisfying meal, especially in warm weather.

It’s simple to put together when you have cooked potatoes and green beans in the fridge; so if you plan on making this recipe, why not make two meals from one idea? Exactly.

What is Nicoise Salad?

A nicoise salad is an iconic dish of France and consists of a variety of ingredients such as hard-boiled eggs, olives, tomatoes, anchovies, and french beans nicely arranged for both an eye and palate pleasing meal.

Over the years, recipes have revised it to include roasted potatoes and canned tuna or salmon, but its concept is kept the same; fresh and simple ingredients.

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, green beans for french beans, added roasted potatoes, and a homemade vinaigrette. The results? A protein packed, healthy meal that my kids love and it makes me feel like a sophisticated woman. Mission accomplished.

Should Nicoise Salad be Served Warm or Cold?

Traditionally, nicoise salad is served cold. Aside from the hard-boiled eggs, none of the ingredients are cooked, including the green beans. This might work for some but for my family? HAH! I’ll take mine steamed, thank you.

I know I’m breaking a nicoise salad rules but since when do I follow the rules?

Traditional Nicoise Salad Ingredients

Type in nicoise on any search bar and a dozen images and recipes will pull up all with tuna, roasted potatoes, green beans, hard-boiled eggs, olives, and tomatoes over a bed of lettuce. However, the original was extremely basic, with hard-boiled eggs, capers, french beans, and tomatoes tossed in a dressing of olive oil, anchovies, and herbs.

While the original is delicious all on its own, this Salmon Nicoise is equally delicious and MUCH more kid-friendly. I don’t know if they’d forgive me for sneaking anchovies into their salad.

Should Nicoise Salad be Composed or Tossed?

Have you noticed that all the ingredients in a nicoise salad looks intact and arranged? Because it is!

I’m going to follow the rules on this one, it easier to assemble and it creates a beautiful dish to serve to guests or a nice dinner during the weekday.

Also, if you’re serving this for a family meal, the composed option is a good idea, that way if someone doesn’t like olives they can easily avoid them, which is more difficult with tossed salads.

How to Prepare Salmon for Nicoise Salad

Whether it’s baked, grilled or from a pouch, there is no wrong way. I usually go for whatever I have on hand, usually, it’s baked salmon from a previous dinner. In fact, salmon, green beans, and potatoes are a meal all on their own, so next time you bake salmon for dinner add extra fish, potatoes and green beans and just like that, you get two meals with one.

Best Dressing to Use for this Salad

I used my homemade vinaigrette which is the most “kitchen action” of the entire recipe. It’s super light and brings out all the flavors of the salad ingredients. I bet the ingredients are probably sitting in your fridge and pantry begging to be used so it’s worth making your own, especially for nicoise salad!