Vegetarian Ni Oise Salad With White Beans Wellplated Com

This easy Niçoise salad is my shortcut, budget-friendly take on a classic Niçoise salad, a salad that originated in Nice but is wildly popular throughout France. (For those who are curious, “nee-swaz” is how you pronounce Niçoise in French.)

Traditional Niçoise Salad is composed of tomatoes, tuna, anchovies, olives, and hard-boiled eggs.Lettuce is optional (but common), as are other mix-ins such as rice, green beans, or potatoes.

It was one of my favorite lunches during our trip to France (along with cups of Instant Pot French Onion Soup), and I’ve been craving it ever since. I swapped the tuna and anchovies typically used for salad Niçoise with white beans, which are budget friendly and I always have in my pantry. As a bonus, with the white bean swap, vegetarians and anchovy skeptics can now jump aboard the salad Niçoise train, a very very tasty place to be.

How to Make Vegetarian Nicoise Salad

Bright summer veggies, a zippy fresh Niçoise salad dressing, creamy eggs, hearty white beans, and salty olives unite! Vegetarian Niçoise salad is a taste of the Riviera, brought to your dining room table!

The Ingredients

Mixed Greens. Incorporating mixed greens into my nicoise salad adds extra vitamins and gives the yummy dressing something else to cling to.

Hard-Boiled Eggs. The labor of love to peel them is more than worth the creaminess and extra protein satisfaction they bring to the salad. Please don’t skip them (and you can use this Instant Pot Boiled Eggs recipe to make them). Also, the yolks are so pretty!Green Beans. Fresh, crisp green beans add a tasty crunch to the salad. Tomatoes. I used cherry tomatoes because they are adorable, delightfully sweet, and yummy, but any sliced tomato will do nicely.Cucumber. Refreshing and crisp cucumber tastes wonderful in this salad. Olives. You can’t have a salad without delicious, salty olives.

White Beans. My vegetarian swap for the traditional tuna and anchovies. They’re wonderfully creamy and help make the salad more filling. You can use Great Northern or cannellini beans, which are creamy. For a firmer texture, use chickpeas.Parsley. Fresh parsley brings the salad to life. Vinaigrette. The vinaigrette I used is my go-to salad French-ish dressing. A quick mix of Dijon mustard, lemon, shallots, and olive oil, it tastes fabulous on everything from vegetables, to bruschetta, to hard-boiled eggs.

The Directions

Storage Tips

To Store. Cover and refrigerate leftover salad for up to 2 days.

Recommended Tools to Make this Recipe

Mixing Bowls. You can prepare and serve the salad in these bowls. Saucepan. Ideal for hard-boiling the eggs. Whisk. A must-have kitchen tool.

With a flavorful mixture of fresh and pantry ingredients, this salad perfectly bridges the gap between simple and special. I hope it brings a taste of the Riviera to your table soon!