Recipes › French Beans › French Bean and Potato Niçoise with Soft-Boiled Eggs
French Bean and Potato Niçoise with Soft-Boiled Eggs
A proper niçoise built around a generous pile of garden-fresh French beans rather than the tuna-heavy versions you see in restaurants. Waxy new potatoes, jammy soft-boiled eggs, briny olives and a sharp anchovy-mustard dressing tie everything together. This is the kind of salad that actually fills you up.
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Ingredients
- 400 g French beans, topped and tailed
- 500 g new potatoes, halvedany waxy potato works well
- 4 eggs
- 6 anchovy fillets in oil, finely choppedomit for a vegetarian version
- 80 g black olives, pitted
- 200 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cloves garlic, crushed
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: eggs, fish, mustard, sulphites.
Method
- Put the potatoes in a large pan of well-salted cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 12–14 minutes until completely tender when pierced with a knife. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and set aside — keep the water at a boil.About 15 min
- While the potatoes are cooking, bring a separate small pan of water to the boil. Lower in the eggs carefully and cook for exactly 7 minutes for a jammy, slightly soft yolk. Transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water and leave for 5 minutes, then peel and halve.About 12 min
- Drop the French beans into the same pan of boiling water you used for the potatoes. Cook for 3–4 minutes until just tender but still with some bite. Drain and plunge into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking and keep their colour vivid green. Drain again and pat dry.About 4 min
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic and chopped anchovies until combined. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until you have a thick, glossy dressing. Season with salt and pepper.About 3 min
- Tip the warm potatoes into a large serving bowl or platter and spoon over half the dressing. Toss gently so they soak it up. Add the French beans, cherry tomatoes and olives, then pour over the remaining dressing and toss again.About 2 min
- Arrange the halved eggs on top, scatter over the parsley and finish with a little extra flaky salt. Serve straight away at room temperature.
Tips
- The potatoes should be warm when dressed — they absorb the dressing much better than cold ones, which makes a real difference to the finished salad.
- Don't overcook the beans. They want to be tender with a definite snap still in them — if they go limp, the whole salad loses its character.
- If your tomatoes are very good and ripe, season them separately with a little salt 10 minutes before assembling. They'll be noticeably sweeter.
Ring the changes
- Add a 200g tin of good-quality tuna in olive oil, flaked over the top, to make a more substantial main.
- Swap the anchovies in the dressing for a teaspoon of capers, finely chopped, to keep it vegetarian.
Keeping it
Best eaten on the day. If you have leftovers, store undressed in the fridge for up to 1 day — the dressed salad goes soggy quickly.
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