April 17, 2023

Leftover Easter Eggs? Make Niçoise Salad!

One of my favorite springtime meals is a French Niçoise Salad since it incorporates foods that you can easily find this time of year, like hard-boiled eggs left over from Easter, spring greens, and asparagus or green beans. I make a lemony-dijon vinaigrette, which is traditional for this type of salad, and makes the dish fresh and light.

Although we mostly eat vegetarian meals, occassionally we have fish in our diet. I tend to use canned tuna in this recipe rather than searing a fresh tuna steak, because frankly, fresh tuna is expensive and to me, canned tastes just as good in this dish.

I like that this recipe uses up some of those leftover hard boiled eggs that never seem to get eaten at Easter dinner. And since eggs are inexpensive and full of nutrients, they're good for garnishing salads and adding protein to your diet. You can get more tips for using eggs in your cooking along with recipes from The American Egg Board.

Salade Niçoise
Vinaigrette
1/2 small red onion (minced) or 2 shallots (minced)
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp vinegar (I like red wine)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
Black pepper to tasted
Combine above ingredients (except for olive oil) and whisk together. Drizzle in the olive oil while whisking. An alternative would be to combine all of the ingredients in a jar, screw on the top and shake. Set aside the dressing.

The Salad
Greens of your choice (I like Boston lettuce--soft and buttery)
1 lb. of cooked asparagus or green beans
2 tbsp minced shallots or chives
1/2 cup of Niçoise olives (small, purplish black olives)
6 hard boiled eggs, cut in half
6 small red potatoes (cooked and cut in half)
1 can of tuna, drained (packed in either oil or water--oil adds a little more flavor, and you can reserve the oil to use in your vinaigrette for a more distinct flavor)
10-15 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Optional: Croutons (I make homemade ones by toasting stale bread in the oven @ 350 degrees for 15 minutes)
Assemble the greens on top of a flat platter or shallow salad bowl. Toss together the asparagus/green beans, shallots and half of the vinaigrette. Let marinate while arranging the ingredients on top of the salad greens. I like to lay the olives in the center, then make rings around them with the other ingredients, leaving the potatoes and eggs to the outside of the dish. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad, and serve. This will feed 4 hungry people.

Enjoy! I'm aiming to make one this weekend, so I'll upload some photos to this post if and when I do.

This post was written for the Parent Bloggers Network, where you can share some of your own ideas for using leftover Easter eggs. Check out their list of blog posts sharing great recipes and tips for using up thoe hard-boiled eggs. Photo is courtesy of the American Egg Board.

4 comments:

  1. That sounds like a nice alternative to all the plain egg salad we've been eating!

    ReplyDelete
  2. blueviolet@A Nut in a NutshellApril 17, 2023 at 3:08 PM

    You are really talented, aren't you? Crafty, cook-y, mother-y, bloggy, what can't you do?

    ReplyDelete

I'm a good listener...comment away!

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