Niçoise Salad with a Twist
The basic Niçoise salad originated in the French city, Nice. It was a simple dish for poor people in the late 19th century. Tomatoes, anchovies and olive oil were the basic ingredients at that time. Later other fresh and mostly raw ingredients were added to the salad. In the beginning of 20th century, one of French chefs’ recipe included artichokes, red peppers, black olives with a nice vinaigrette. I can’t think of another dish that comes in so many variations and that has been debated so much. Several chefs created their own version with tuna, or without it. Julia Child demonstrated her recipe, with cooked potato, green beans, tuna, anchovies and vinaigrette, in her tv-show. The world-known French chef Paul Bocuse made his vegetarian version with chopped onion and chervil.
I created mine with Jerusalem artichoke, with this not generally used root vegetable. This root vegetable is a good substitute for potato, has a similar consistency, and in its raw form has a similar texture, it can be roasted, sautéed, fried, boiled, steamed. It is high source of potassium and iron, contains fiber, phosphorus, copper and vitamin C.
Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relationship to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke. The origin of the name is uncertain, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple, earth pear, Canadian truffle. Hungarian name is “csicsóka” ([chitchoka]) but don’t ask me about the meaning, just sounds funny and cheerful.
Niçoise Salad with a Twist
Ingredients
Salad
- 500 gram jerusalem artichoke
- 250 gram green beans
- 4 hard boiled eggs
- 280 gram tuna 2 cans in olive oil
- 8 pcs anchovies
- 3 medium ripe tomato cut into wedges
- 1 small red onion
- 4 tbsp black olives pitted
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1 butterhead lettuce
- salt and pepper
Vinaigrette
- 140 ml olive oil
- 80 ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 small red onion finely diced
- 1 tbsp thyme finely chopped
- 1 tbsp dried Provençal herb mix
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp agave syrup
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Make vinaigrette first. Put all ingredients of vinaigrette into a bowl and mix it well.
- Slice small red onion finely and pour 2 tbsp vinaigrette over it to marinate.
- Peel Jerusalem artichokes and put them into a large pot, cover with water (add 1 tsp salt into the water). Cook it for 30 minutes from the boiling until tender. Check it with a fork!
- Rinse off with cold water and cut 2 cm cubes.
- Cook eggs in boiling water for 10 minutes. Rinse off with cold water, clean it and cut wedges.
- Cut green beans 5-6 cm length pieces and put into steamer pot and steam them for 6-8 minutes until tender but still firm to bite.
- Rinse off the green beans with cold water.
- Wash and dry butterhead lettuce with kitchen paper and make a bed with the leaves in a big serving bowl.
- In a separate bowl gently mix Jerusalem artichoke, green beans, marinated onion slices, tomato wedges, olives and capers.
- Place it into the serving bowl onto the lettuce bed.
- Pour the rest of the vinaigrette over it.
- Drain the olive oil out of the tuna can and break tuna to small pieces and sprinkle on top of the salad.
- Decorate it with anchovies and a bit of extra capers.
- Place boiled eggs wedges around the bowl and it's ready to serve.