Lentil Nicoise Salad
with potatoes / walnuts / olives / green beans
Nicoise salad is a French favorite, and we love its combination of hearty ingredients and tart vinaigrette. This version uses lentils instead of the traditional tuna for a vegetarian spin, but still has all the same satisfying flavors as the original.
Ingredients
- Garlic - 1 clove, chopped
- Vinegar, sherry - 1 Tbsp (sub red or white wine vinegar)
- Lemon juice - 2 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 2 tsp
- Honey - 2 tsp
- Oil, olive - 4 Tbsp
- Eggs - 4
- Walnuts - 2 oz, chopped
- Green beans - 8 oz, trimmed and chopped into 1" / 2.5cm pieces
- Potatoes, baby or new - 1 lb
- Tomatoes, medium - 1, wedges
- Chives (opt) - 1 Tbsp, chopped
- Olives, nicoise - 1/2 cup, drained and rinsed (sub seedless kalamata)
- Oil, olive - 2 tsp
- Lentils, any variety pre-cooked - 1 1/2 cups (look for vacuum-packed in the refrigerated section; otherwise canned)
- Salad greens - 8 oz
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Boil eggs - Cover eggs with cold water in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then turn off heat. Put a lid on the pan and let eggs sit in hot water for 11 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Walnuts / Green beans - Prep as directed and store separately. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Boil potatoes and green beans - Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and reduce heat to a low simmer. Simmer, covered, until potatoes are nearly tender, about 15 minutes (this will vary depending on the size of potatoes, but they should be fairly easy to pierce with a fork before adding green beans). Add green beans to the pot and continue to boil until both the potatoes and beans both very tender, about 5 minutes more. Drain and rinse under cool water. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make vinaigrette - Chop garlic. Whisk garlic with vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and honey. Add olive oil (portion for the vinaigrette) while whisking. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Tomatoes / Chives / Olives - Prep as directed. (You can leave the olives whole or slice them if you’d prefer.)
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Make
- Roll eggs against a hard, flat surface to break up shell, and then peel. Slice into quarters.
- Quarter potatoes. Toss potatoes and green beans with olive oil (the portion for the salad) and chives. Season with some salt and pepper.
- If you’d like the lentils warm in the salad, heat them briefly in the microwave.
- Assemble salads by topping salad greens with potatoes and green beans, lentils, tomatoes, olives, eggs and walnuts. Finish with vinaigrette just before serving. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
21 reviews
I'm not a big hard boiled egg fan. LOL, The spicy Thai tuna masked the egg well though. None of the other family wanted any part.
0 HelpfulReally filling! Often meatless meals don't satisfy my fiance, but this one made us all full! I'll have to look for more excuses to use lentils, because they are awesome.
0 Helpfulsurprisingly good. My husband's thought a salad wouldn't be enough but there were no complaints afterward. I had a picky eater visiting so I laid the ingredients out like a salad bar and everyone made their own salad. I loved the lentils.
0 HelpfulI made this original but used tuna instead of lentils. It was delicious. Make sure not to overcook the green beans.
0 Helpful