Salmon Niçoise-Style Salad

Salmon Niçoise-Style Salad.
Elaine said she was in the mood for salmon, so I headed off to the store, picked up a nice piece of organic salmon, haricots verts, olives and lettuce, came home and made dinner.

The combination of cooked, raw and pickled veggies, with the red wine-Dijon dressing is fantastic! But, that crispy salmon skin… so good!  

Ingredients

For the dressing

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons shallot, minced
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad

• Ice
• Kosher salt
• 10 ounces small creamer potatoes (about 15-20) mix of colours – halved
• 4 large eggs
• 6 ounces haricots verts, trimmed
• ½ cup hot kalamata olives (if regular kalamata, sprinkle with chili flakes)
• 6-8 baby dill pickles
• 2 tablespoons capers
• ½ bunch radishes (6-8) some quartered, some thinly sliced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes – halved
• Large stalk of celery – thinly sliced
• ½ red onion – sliced and marinated*
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 skin-on salmon fillet pieces, top loin/loin cut, wild or organic (6-7 ounces each)
• 8 Boston/bib lettuce leaves – washed and dried
• 4 lemon wedges

Preparation

Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan; cover with cold water and season with salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until fork-tender, about 10 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, make the dressing: Whisk the vinegar, shallot, mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Whisk in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream until emulsified.

Drain and transfer potatoes to a medium bowl; drizzle with about ¼ cup the dressing and let cool.

Fill the saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Add the haricots verts to the boiling water; cook until crisp-tender and bright green, 2 to 4 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge into the ice water to cool; drain and pat dry.

Place the eggs in the saucepan and cover with cold water by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 5 ½ minutes. Drain, then run under cold water to cool. Peel rinse and set aside.

Toss the tomatoes in a small bowl with salt and pepper to taste. Quarter the hard-cooked eggs.

Place the salmon, skin side up in a dry, cold non-stick pan, place the pan over medium-high heat and cook for 3 minutes, flip the salmon and cook for 5 minutes more.

While the salmon cooks, place the lettuce on a platter, then arrange the potatoes, haricots verts, radishes, onions, tomatoes, baby dills, olives and boiled eggs around the outside of the platter, leaving room in the centre for the salmon. Drizzle everything with the dressing.

Place the cooked salmon in the centre of the platter, skin side up, cut in half, add the lemon wedges and serve.

*Marinated red onions

Slice half a red onion, place in a bowl that fits the onion rings with at least an inch of room to spare. Pour in olive oil to completely cover onion. Add 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp oregano and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Leave onions uncovered on the counter for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: serves 4
Time: 30 minutes

In addition to this Salmon Niçoise-Style Salad recipe, you can find more of my favourite salmon recipes here.