This refreshing and delicious Vegan Salade Nicoise salad is the perfect mid-summer salad. Taking inspiration from the classic Salade Nicoise from the French Mediterranian City of Nice, it's packed with delicious peak-of-summer ingredients like green French beans and ripe tomatoes, as well as tangy capers and olives. If you need another recipe to use up abundant produce, this Green Bean and Tomato Pesto Salad is perfect for a sunny side dish.
QUICK LOOK: TL:DR
Vegan Salade Nicoise
- Prep Time : 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Servings: 4
- Calories: 334 per serve
- Key Ingredients: Baby Potatoes, Green Beans, Olives and Smoked Tofu
- Dietary Info: Vegan, Gluten Free and Dairy Free
- Tasting Notes: Fresh and Tasty, bursting with flavor from ripe tomatoes and crunchy beans with a delicious tangy dressing.
Why you'll love this recipe!
- Fresh and Delicous: Make the most of high-summer produce, green beans, ripe tomatoes and new potatoes.
- Great Tangy Dressing: the capery vinaigrette dressing is so addictive.
- Good for Meal Prep: Make all the components seperately and combine as needed.
- Added Protein: Creating a vegan alternative to the usual addition of tuna makes this a higher protein option.
Jump To
This salad is best made with super fresh ingredients in mid-summer when tomatoes are at their best, little new potatoes are just picked and there are fresh green beans ready to cook. Like any good French recipe, the ingredients really matter to the end taste. If you're a fan of French style cooking, why not check out my vegan version of the classic French Carrot Salad or try this Sundried Tomato and Olive Tapenade spread on good crusty baguette. And of course, in winter you simply must try my favourite winter stew, Vegan Mushroom Bourguignon
🍅Key Ingredients
Head to the recipe card for quantities!
I've put the non-negotiable ingredients for this vegan Niçoise Salad here, all the delicious variatons are below on the 'Substitutions and Variations' section!
- New Potatoes: Little waxy baby potatoes are best used in this salad. Simply wash well and boil them whole with the skin on.
- Fresh Green Beans: lovely bright green fresh beans that are barely cooked and have a great snap and a sweet flavor.
- Good Black Olives: I prefer kalamata olives, however the traditional ones to use are the little nicoise olives grown near Nice. If you end up with extra olives, make them into a delicious Eggplant and Olive Tapenade!
- Capers: I like to add capers to the salad, but also finely chop them and add to the dressing.
- Ripe tomatoes: This salad needs really good tomatoes, I prefer to use juicy cherry tomatoes (preferably from my garden) but you can also use any good salad tomato. Make sure the tomatoes are room temperature not fridge-cold for maximum flavor potential.
- Homemade Vinaigrette ; using Dijon Mustard, White Wine Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil and an optional but delicious clove of garlic.
Traditional Salade Nicoise is made with canned tuna and/or anchovies, although you might also find fancier versions with fresh tuna. This is a vegan nicoise salad, so instead I like to make a tuna-ish tofu to add protein and texture to the salad. You could also make my Chickpea Vegan Tuna if you prefer to use chickpeas.
- Extra-Firm Smoked Tofu: this gets grated for texture and simply mixed in with the other ingredients. I'm obsessed with using smoked tofu for a quick delicious protein fix, so why not try my Smoked Tofu Open Sandwich?
- Fresh Dill: or you can use dried (or omit if you don't like dill)
- Capers; for tangy flavor
- Dijon Mustard and Vegan Mayo: to help bring it all together. If you're feeling up to it, why not make your own Vegan Mayo?
See recipe card for quantities.
🌶️Substitutions & Variations
Here are some other ideas to add to the salad. It's pretty flexible as a concept but two or three additions of any of these options really take the salad to a meal level.
- Artichoke Hearts- I love those grilled marinated artichokes that come in jars or from the deli.
- White Beans- add in white beans in place of the vegan tuna for a quick swap, alternatively lentils, black beans or chickpeas would also add a good texture and extra fiber!
- Shallots or Red onion - soak in a little red wine vinegar to take the heat out of them.
- Fresh Lettuce Leaves; such as butter lettuce or romaine lettuce or other fresh greens such as rocket/arugula or even extra flat leaf parsley.
- Other fresh crunchy vegetables: radishes, cucumbers, strips of crunchy red or yellow peppers, mange tout, celery or even carrots.
👩🍳Instructions
Before you start the salad, steam or boil the new potatoes and steam the green beans until tender. Drain and refresh in iced water.
- Step 1: make the vinaigrette dressing. Very finely chop two teaspoon of capers and mince a clove of garlic.
- Step 2: Add all the vinaigrette dressing ingredients into a mason jar and shake or whisk well.
- Step 3: Grate the firm smoked tofu.
- Step 4: Add the tofu, mayo, dill and other vegan tunaaa ingredients into a large bowl and mix to combine. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
- Step 5: Use a large flat bowl or plate and drizzle a generous amount of dressing onto the bottom of the plate.
- Step 6: Drain the potatoes and green beans. Add to the plate along with the other veggies, those briny olives and the vegan tofu 'tuna', then drizzle over more dressing to serve.
Hint: I like to add some dressing to the bottom of the plate to ensure the potatoes and greens at the base also get a delicous serving of dressing on them.
What to serve with Vegan Salad Nicoise:
This salad nicoise is perfect for serving as a light lunch on it's own, however you could also serve it alongside these other salad recipes for an elegant lunch with friends, like this Harissa Roasted Chickpea Salad, or this super summery Grilled Peach and Arugula Salad.
And if you want to add in some more protein, make some fritters such as these these Carrot and Tempeh fritters, or these Pea and Tofu fritters to round out the meal.
Louise's Top Tip for Salad Potatoes!
The best salad potatoes to use in this vegan nicoise are the small waxy salad potatoes. I like to use Jersey Royals if I can find them. Make sure to wash them thoroughly but don't peel them, and only cut up larger ones then gently boil until tender. Rinse in cold water immediately until they are room temperature before cutting into the desired bite size pieces. This avoids waterlogged potatoes or potatoes that are collapsing rather than biteable.
❓Vegan Nicoise FAQ
Usually Salade Nicoise is made with anchovies and hard-boiled eggs and often also has canned tuna added. This version omits the tuna, anchovies and eggs so is vegan.
This salad keeps for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also keep the pre-prepared elements in separate containers and mix as needed for a fresher salad experience.
Nicoise Salad is generally dairy free as it contains no cheese or milk. It is not however vegan as it usually contains egg, anchovies and tuna. This version is both dairy free and vegan (and just as delicous!)
What to eat with Nicoise Salad
Here are some great dips to try alongside your salad!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Salade Nicoise with 'Tofu Tunah'
Ingredients Note:
For accuracy, I measure all ingredients in metric as standard, then convert and test the recipe for American cup measurements etc.
(Heads up Aussie and UK readers- your measurements in cups are sometimes different, so please use metric or check you have the correct cup and spoon type!!)
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 500 g (1 lb) whole baby or salad potatoes
- 200 g (6/7 cup) fresh green french beans
- 200 g (1 ⅓ cups) very good quality tomatoes (either cherry or larger. The important thing is they taste of tomato!)
- 50 g (⅜ cup) good quality black olives (or green olives. You want the juicy real ones from the deli, not the ones from a tin!)
- handful (handful) herbs: chives or parsley are nice (finely chopped. )
- 50 g marinated artichokes (optional )
For the Vinaigrette Dressing
- 2 tablespoon (⅛ cup) capers (roughly chopped)
- 2 tablespoon (⅛ cup) White Wine Vinegar (OR the 'juice' that the capers come in )
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- Juice ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoon Dijion Mustard
- 1 clove garlic (very finely minced (optional but delicious) )
- 2 teaspoon agave or maple syrup (you can use sugar too- just need to make sure it dissolves properly)
Vegan Tofu Tunah
- 225 g smoked tofu (approx)
- 2 tablespoon vegan mayo
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoon fresh dill
- 2 tablespoon capers (finely chopped)
- 1 teaspoon caper 'juice' (the juice from the jar of capers)
- pinch sea salt to taste
Instructions
For the Salad
- Boil the baby potatoes until just tender.
- Top & Tail the beans, removing any strings. Add them to the boiling potatoes & cook for around 2 minutes.
- Remove the beans & potatoes from their boiling water & refresh in cold water to stop them cooking. I like to put the beans in some iced water so they retain their snap.
- Chop the tomatoes & olives, prepare any other salad bits you wish to add.
- Arrange everything on a plate, drizzle over the dressing & sprinkle over the herbs.
For the Dressing.
- In a mason jar or old jam jar mix together all the ingredients until they are combined. Taste & adjust (add more oil, a touch more mustard- to your own taste!)
- This recipe makes enough to dress 2 or 3 salads. Simply keep in a jar in the fridge for up to a week.
For the Tofu 'Tunah'
- Use a box grater and grate the firm smoked tofu.
- Finely chop the capers and dill.
- Mix together the tofu, capers, dill, mustard and any other seasoning you desire and serve as a scoop on the salad.
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
This is one of my faves to make in summer when my garden is bursting with fresh ripe tomatoes and green beans.
Colleen Whalen says
It isn't Salad Nicoise without TUNA. Of course as vegans - tuna is a "no-no". To really make this salad authentic - use JACKFRUIT as a tuna substitute. Adding jackfruit giv es the salad more body and "oopmh".
Louise-Claire Cayzer says
Thank you for your feedback on my recipe.
Salad Nicoise traditionally has tuna OR anchovies (and sometimes eggs).
I'm not a huge fan of jackfruit unless it's very well flavoured with a marinade or similar, so instead I chose to substitute the anchovies with capers as I prefer the tang and saltiness.
However if you choose to add in jackfruit, by all means you should do so. That's the great thing about a recipe that's been 'inspired' by another recipe. It can be changed to your personal taste!