Salad Nicoise

I have been nowhere near as regular with these recipe posts as I had hoped! So to make it up to you I am going to share the recipe that my husband called ‘the best thing I have ever made’ when I presented it for our dinner the other day (I’m still deciding how to take that).

It was a budget take on warm tuna nicoise. Firstly, we replaced the tuna with smoked Mackerel, we only did this because they had sold out of tuna (which is on offer in ASDA, £2 for 2 tuna steaks) but it turned out DELICIOUS.
Parts of this recipe are taken from the BBC food website.
Serves 4 Cost Approx £7.50
You will need:


Dressing

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 30ml/1fl oz white wine vinegar
• A splash of balsamic vinegar
• 150ml/5fl oz olive oil
• 1 lemon, juice only
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad

• 200g fine beans, cooked (£1)
• 4 handfuls fresh baby spinach (£1)
• 200g/3½oz new potatoes, cooked (£1)
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved (£1)
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 2 fresh smoked mackerel fillets (£1.81)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Preparation method

1. For the dressing, whisk together the mustard, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper.


2. For the salad, put the dressing in a frying pan and warm over a low heat. Add the beans,
spinach, potatoes and tomatoes and toss them in the warm dressing. Remove from the
heat.


3. Brush the Mackerel with the olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black
pepper. Heat a griddle pan (or thick based frying pan) over a high heat. Cook the fish on the
griddle for about 30 seconds on each side.


4. To serve, put the tuna steaks on top of the lettuce, dressed vegetables and top with
chopped egg. Drizzle excess dressing.

Enjoy!