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Nicoise Salad with Warm Goat Cheese and Potatoes

By Elaine Mellen

Posted on April 19, 2016

My Nicoise salad is not only beautiful, but just as delicious to eat! Make this salad for family or company, it’s an easy addition to any meal.

I like to serve this crisp salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. It’s a wonderful compliment to the warm goat cheese and fingerling potatoes. It also makes for a beautiful centerpiece of your buffet lunch, or as a light meal on its own, with fresh bread and a French Rosè.

Nicoise Salad with Warm Goat Cheese and Potatoes

Ingredients:

6 multi-colored fingerling potatoes
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 pound Haricots Verts (French green beans)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar mustard
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
2 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 head Belgian endive, separated into leaves
1 head radicchio, thinly sliced
2 English cucumbers, diagonally sliced (about 4 oz.)
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
4 ounce log of goat cheese

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Preparation:

1. Place potatoes in a medium saucepan. Add 1/4 cup salt and enough water to cover the potatoes by two inches. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.

2. Reduce heat to low and simmer eight to ten minutes, or until just tender, adding haricots verts during the last two minutes of cook time. Drain vegetables and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process.

3. Stir together lemon juice, shallot, garlic and mustard in a medium bowl. Let stand five minutes. Whisk in olive oil and parsley. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

4. Drain vegetables and pat dry with paper towels. Arrange cooked vegetables, tomatoes, endive leaves, radicchio, cucumbers and hard-boiled eggs on a serving plate.

5. Wrap goat cheese in aluminum foil and warm in a 325ºF oven for ten minutes. Remove from aluminum foil and crumble goat cheese over the salad. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Serve with vinaigrette.