Salad Nicoise
SERVES 4
Ingredients
400g fresh tuna
8 fresh, cooked anchovies
4 happy eggs
Handful carrot leaves
Handful beetroot leaves
Handful celery leaves
Handful lettuce
100g black olives, chopped
Salt & cracked black pepper to season
150ml rapeseed oil
50ml white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 thinly sliced radish
Method
Anchovies
You can buy these in a tin (always look for an MSC stamp to show that they come from a sustainable source). Less well known is that you can get fresh anchovies, caught in British waters. These are less salty than the tinned variety but taste fantastic served whole, after being cooked on a hot griddle.
Salad dressing
Mat’s top tip: A good rule to follow for salad dressing is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar.
In a bottle, pour rapeseed oil, white wine vinegar, honey, mustard and a pinch of salt & pepper, shake.
Leaves
You can of course buy a lettuce for this, but why not do what restaurants do, use the wonderful leaves that most people throw away; beetroot leaves, carrot tops and celery fronds make fantastic salad leaves. Wash them and pat them dry. If you like alot of salad, add a few lettuce leaves too.
Boiled eggs
Place 4 happy eggs in simmering water for 7 minutes, then transfer to cold water for a few minutes, to stop them cooking. A great trick for peeling eggs more easily, is to crack the shells and then put them back into the cold water for 2 minutes, before peeling.
Tuna
Season your tuna with salt and cracked black pepper. Then, in a hot pan, sear your tuna on all sides ... it’s wonderful served pink (it will need no more than 1 minute on each side).
For variety, you could use mackerel when it’s in season, instead.
To assemble
Toss your salad leaves in a bowl with a drizzle of salad dressing, then assemble on plates. ¼ the boiled eggs and place them, the anchovies, the thinly sliced radish and the olives on the leaves. Slice the tuna and lay gently on top.
This delicious recipe was made using happy eggs. The happy egg co. are committed to providing the highest possible standard of welfare for their hens, with the belief that happier hens lay tastier eggs. For more mouth-watering recipes, visit www.thehappyegg.co.uk