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Winter Nicoise salad
( SERVES 4 )

Bite

Photo by Tamara West

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A traditional French dish from Nice in the south of France (hence its name Nicoise — pronounced ‘nee-swah’). It usually has beans in it, but seeing it’s winter I’ve replaced them with some more seasonal vegetables.

Nicoise salad

800 g	Waxy potatoes, use baby potatoes
4	Eggs, free-range
1	Baby cos lettuce, use witloof or radicchio
1	Fennel bulb
3	Baby radishes
1 punnet	Cherry tomatoes
185 g	Canned tuna, drained, I prefer mine in oil
¼ cup	Kalamata olives, or 2 Tbsp chopped capers

Dressing

2 Tbsp	Red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp	Extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp	Mayonnaise
½ cup	Flat leaf (Italian) parsley, chopped
1 clove	Garlic, small, finely minced or grated
1	Lemon, cut into wedges to serve

Directions

Halve any larger potatoes so they are all roughly the same size. Place potatoes in a pot with 1 teaspoon salt and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 12 minutes.
Place eggs in a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a gentle boil and time for 6 minutes. Drain eggs and run under cold water to cool down. Once they have cooled, peel off their shells and roughly chop.
Separate baby cos lettuce leaves and roughly chop. Finely slice fennel and radishes. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Mix all dressing ingredients together and set aside.
Drain potatoes and toss with chopped egg, vegetables, flakes of tuna, olives/capers and dressing. Season to taste with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
To serve, divide nicoise salad between plates and serve with a lemon wedge on the side to squeeze over just before eating.