A few years ago, I served up this salad at one of my Greek Supper Clubs. It was a Nicoise Salad with some Greek elements (to which I will get to shortly).

A Nicoise Salad is French, originating from the southern French city of Nice. Basically it’s a composed salad of raw vegetables, canned or grilled tuna and dressed with olive oil.

After that, one can take creative liberties with the salad, such as using canned or grilled salmon or your choice of summer vegetables.

Here in Toronto, we’ve had some hot, hazy, humid days and that means I look towards simple dishes to prepare and if possible, no cooking involved. Enter my Greekish Nicoise Salad.

I have sweet tomatoes from my garden, some torn Romaine lettuce leaves, hard boiled eggs, pickled green beans, boiled potatoes, garnish of sliced banana peppers, red onion and Kalamata olives.

I used a lightly smoked can of tuna from Trata of Greece as the centerpiece and the kicker is my green olive dressing. It’s a forward dressing, one that works here to add flavour to the raw vegetables in the salad.

Greekish Nicoise Salad

(serves 2)

Green Olive Dressing

1 clove of garlic

1 scallion, roughly chopped

1 anchovy fillet

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

5 pitted green olives

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Salad Components 

1 romaine lettuce leaves, hand-torn

1 large tomato, cut in wedges

handful of extreme beans or young fresh beans from garden)

2 hardboiled eggs, quartered

2 medium sized boiled potatoes, quartered

1 can Trata smoked tuna

Garnishes

chopped chives or scallions

thinly sliced red onions

Kalamata olives

1. Into a food processor, add garlic, scallion, anchovy, mustard, green olives, zest, lemon, lemon juice, vinegar and process until smooth. Now add a slow stream of olive oil. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
2. Arrange your salad ingredients on a plate or platter with the can of tuna in the middle.
3. Spoon over the dressing, garnish with chives, red onions and olives and serve.