A Fully Loaded Potato Salad for Dinner
I love potato salad. I love the creamy kind, the vinegar-y kind; I’ll take a warm one with dill, whatever you’ve got. And yet, I’m about to make a bold claim: this potato salad might be my favorite. Why? Because it’s decidedly not a side dish. It’s the whole damn meal.
This recipe comes to us from Melina Hammer, who calls it a “Niçoise-ish” potato salad, because it’s souped up with tuna, eggs, and other classic Niçoise elements. “You get those bright, bold flavors,” says Melina. It adapts easily for the season, she adds, suggesting winter radishes — like purple daikons or watermelon radishes — if you make it this month. “You can also swap the green beans for two cups of chopped escarole or Napa cabbage, and I’m always a fan of thawed frozen peas. No need to cook them any further — just toss ’em in!”
Here’s the full recipe, plus some pointers from Melina:
Niçoise-ish Potato Salad
by Melina Hammer
Serves 4
3 eggs
salt
1 dry quart small red potatoes (approximately 2 lbs), any larger ones sliced in half
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp (or more) freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp capers, strained
2 1/2 oz thin green beans, stem ends trimmed and sliced into 1 1/2-2 inch segments on a diagonal (or swap for peas, cabbage, etc)
1 5-ounce can albacore tuna
3 radishes, ends trimmed and sliced in halves, then thinly sliced
2 tbsp finely sliced chives
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Bring a medium saucepan with enough water to cover the eggs by an inch to a boil. Lower refrigerator-cold eggs into the water and cook them on a simmer for 8 minutes, then plunge the eggs into an ice bath until they are cool enough to handle. Peel and then slice the eggs into six wedges apiece and set aside.
Bring the potatoes to a simmer in well-salted water. Cook for 8 minutes or until they yield easily when pierced with a sharp knife. Strain them into a colander with a slotted spoon, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the potatoes to a mixing bowl and add the oil, mustard, black pepper, and capers. Gently toss to fully coat.
Blanch the green beans in the potato water for 30 seconds to 1 minute — just long enough for them to turn bright green. Strain, and add to the potatoes. Add the tuna, flaking the fish into the bowl, followed by the radishes and chives. Toss to incorporate, then add the eggs and lemon juice. (Note: “If you’re making this a day or more in advance, hold the lemon juice and add it just before serving,” says Melina. “Otherwise, it will dull the color of the green beans.”) Gently toss once more. “I like to use a silicone spatula and work up from the bottom of the bowl, folding the ingredients together with a light hand so the yolks remain mostly intact.”
As you serve the potato salad, make sure to scoop up all the last bits of custardy egg, straggler chives, and mustardy goodness clinging to the sides of the bowl. Enjoy.
Melina Hammer is a chef, food stylist, recipe developer, and the award-winning author of A Year at Catbird Cottage. Her recipes have appeared on Bon Appétit, Food52, and Edible. You can follow her newsletter, Stories from Catbird Cottage.
What other dinner salads do you love? And do you have a house salad?
P.S. Five ways to upgrade a regular green salad, and white bean soup, because it’s February.
(Photos courtesy of Melina Hammer.)
Tags: potatoes
Comments
50 commentsI LOVE this and everyone’s suggestions & variations, so many great ideas- thank you!! Just what I needed right now, am looking forward to making this.
I made this last night and it was devoured by kids and adults alike. A few changes to avoid a trip to the grocery store: adding shelled edamame as well as green beans, olives as well as capers, finely sliced shallot macerated in the lemon juice for ten minutes instead of radishes, oil packed rio tuna, replacing most of the olive oil, and parsley instead of dill. Thanks for a fantastic recipe!
Gosh that sounds terrific. So happy to hear everyone loved it!
Looks great! would suggest replacing tuna with canned sardines (smoked would be fab), for lower environmental impact and also mercury!
Absolutely. I often use tinned mackerel or trout, as well. Thanks for the suggestions!
I love to make this with smoked trout (I usually use the canned version at Trader Joe’s). So good!
Smoked trout is an excellent choice! Yay for tinned fish options :D
Kelsey is killing it with the recipes!!!
Glad you love my recipe!!
Wow, you know your city has been occupied by ICE for too long when a recipe for a dinner potato salad makes you cry because it looks so damn comforting.
Ugh, I’m so sorry. Hugs.
Making and bringing you this salad virtually – or at least sending all my care and thoughts for an end to ICE occupying your city your way. Hoping you can find moments of comfort to hold on to right now.
My heart goes out to you!! Hugs from upstate NY (and f*ck ICE)
❤️
I can’t eat tuna, but I’m drooling.
This would be terrific with tinned mackerel, mussels, or forego the fish entirely and make the rest as-is. There will still be depth and creaminess, an easy healthy + hearty dish you just might polish off in one sitting…
Thanks Melina! Unfortunately seafood in general is a no go for me, but I could definitely try it with chicken or maybe some beans!
I make a similar salad with chickpeas! sometimes I quick saute them in a pan on really high heat to give them some texture, sometimes I mash them a bit so they mash together with other elements and can be added to bites more easily.
it seems to be yummy ,am going to give it a try
Oh it most definitely is. Cannot wait to see what you think!
I love me a good Cobb salad…no chicken? Extra bacon, with a good vinaigrette. A good kale with apple, dried cranberries and Parmesan.
This totally gives Cobb salad vibes (and, me TOO!)
This is all the flavors I love, and I will have to make it soon. But maybe when there’s slightly warmer temps and not snow on the ground?? I’m very much leaning into cozy things like soup at the moment. Still sounds so delicious!
In cold weather, I like eating this potato salad when the potatoes are still warm – makes it feel soothing (as well as the joy in it coming together quickly). Also loving my soups right now!
Yes!!! Looks so yummy! I’m vegetarian, so thinking I’ll swap out some chickpeas for the tuna but would love other ideas!
That sounds like a good swap! Or maybe some baked flavorful tofu?
Erin, I am not a chickpea fan because of the texture. (For instance, I love hummus.) But I would happily sub white navy beans for the tuna here.
This might be a little out there, but I’ve gotten crispy fried jalapeños at Trader Joe’s and I think they’d be good! No protein, but there’s still the egg!
Also not protein but I but artichoke hearts would be great!
As a fellow vegetarian, I’d recommend making a chickpea mash so you get the same texture as tuna in the salad. I don’t have a precise recipe but basically I use vegan mayo, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric, lemon juice, salt, pepper, red onion, Dijon mustard and put all the ingredients together with mashed chickpeas. Also recommend adding slices of pickles, dill, and capers if you like those flavours too. It’s really tasty and I bet it would taste amazing in a potato salad dish like this.
This recipe looks great, but as a long time veg I would simply omit the tuna – although the above suggestions all sound yummy! I think the eggs would be enough protein for me, but I definitely would add a bunch of baby arugula to get in some leafy greens.
All of the suggestions here would be right at home in this dish. In fact, I’m taking notes and going to make swaps for my next batch :D
I bet crumbled tempeh, scrambled tofu or edamame would also be good. I’d also add some nutritional yeast or hemp hearts.
Chickpeas would be a great sub (especially if you threw them in a jar in the fridge early with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and maybe some shallot or garlic to infuse them a bit). I also added shelled edamame to this recipe and it was great.
I make the same salad but with hot smoked salmon. Delicious!
Oh yes that’s an excellent swap!
Literally have Yukons on the steam! Dee-licious salad recipe. Winter perfection. In summer, I prepare SK’s dilly-pickely cold potato salad to raves. I believe it’s a blog fav.
Cannot wait to hear how you like this one!
Melina, pinned to my frig! Yum!
Yum!
This is my dream lunch – thank you for sharing!
*happy dance* Yay!!
this looks delicious! I would double the tuna, but otherwise keep it the same.
ooh love that. my mom used to make a tuna pasta salad with pasta shells, tuna, eggs, red onion, capers and peas, and it was soooo good — similar to this.
Yum! Would your mom consider sharing her recipe? I’ve never had a pasta salad like that and it sounds so good. And it’s a full meal … I love a one dish dinner.
that’s basically it, haha. there isn’t really a recipe, it’s more like throwing everything in a bowl :) then you add mayo and pepper.
Oooh thanks! Mayo makes sense. I bet it would be good with olive oil too.
YUM!
Yes ma’am!! Makes me want to make this all over again ;)
thank you, Melina!