Salade Niçoise ~ with grilled Salmon

The traditonal Salad Niçoise, originating from Provence, France is made with tuna, not salmon ~ but since I'm in the Pacific NW I usually use salmon instead.

If asparagus is in season, I include some lightly steamed or blanched spears along with the traditional green beans or haricot vert.

Sometimes I make individual plates, but my favorite way of serving this salad to make one large salad on a huge platter.

I just love the fresh look and vibrant colors of everything assembled together.

It is definitely one of my very favorite salads.

The requsite tiny black Niçoise olives, imported from France ~ I prefer to use unpitted, for superior flavor and texture but could only find pitted in the market this time. They are still very good, and beat any substitute ~ try to find them if you are going to make this salad.

Gently hard-cooked eggs...

If you don't care for anchovies, of course you may omit them. I always serve some of the eggs plain when serving this salad to guests.

The salmon (or tuna), can be grilled, poached or broiled ~ the important thing is to not overcook the fish.

Another variation I sometimes make, as I did this time, is to substitute my grandfather's recipe for marinated celery root for the usual potatoes in the salad. The recipe has been in my family for at least four generations, brought to the new country by my paternal great-grandmother from France.

This was one of my favorite treats while growing up. If you like marinated artichoke hearts, I'm quite sure you would like my grandfather's recipe.

Most all of the other recipes for celery root that I've encountered involve raw celery root, julienned/shredded and mixed with a creamy dressing, or the celery root is cooked, pureed and served hot.

I much prefer this method of preparation ~

Are you familiar with celery root? If not, you would probably just pass it by in the market because it is not the most appealing looking vegetable, by far!

As you can see, it's large, gnarly and well, ugly ~ but once it is prepared, the beast turns into a beauty. It becomes a star.

The recipe will be available on my alternate blog "Once Upon a Plate ~ Recipes" shortly. A mild celery flavor with the texture of cooked artichoke hearts (crowns), this dish was always on our holiday table.

I like to serve a slightly tart, homemade, Creamy Lemon Vinaigrette alongside the salad, so each diner can add as much or as little as they like.

You can CLICK HERE to get the recipe from my recipe blog ~ I've offered two versions there, one using raw egg yolk as an emulsifier, the other using mayonnaise ~ both are excellent.