Cod Nicoise Salad is an easy, yet flavorful lunch or dinner for the warmer months! It starts with a bed of greens topped with fresh olives, juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, potato & cod fillets, soft boiled eggs, blanched green beans, all dressed in an easy, lemony, vinaigrette.

Cod Niçoise salad on platter

This recipe is sponsored by Sea Cuisine. We’re using their Potato & Herb Cod to create today’s easy and delicious recipe!

Crunchy, flavorful and so quick and easy to throw together for lunch! Cod Niçoise Salad is a quick spin on the traditional French salad that comes to us from the French city of Nice. We’re swapping out the tuna and boiled potatoes for buttery delicious cod fillets crusted with potatoes and herbs. It starts with a base of mixed green, topped with your favorite mix of olives, ripe tomatoes, crispy cucumbers, soft boiled eggs, tender green beans, and it’s all drizzled in the most delicious lemon vinaigrette flavored with red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and your typical vinaigrette ingredients.

This salad is going to be on repeat during the warmer months for us! We love the light crunch of the baked cod fillets with the fresh ingredients in this salad. I can’t even begin to tell you how good the smell is when the fillets are baking in the oven!

Pouring dressing on cod filet

Ingredients for Cod Nicoise Salad recipe:

  • Sea Cuisine Potato & Herb Cod: This is a great little shortcut to get lunch or dinner on the table super fast! The cod fillets are made with potato, cheese, chives and garlic seasoned crust loaded with 17 grams of protein per serving!
  • Mixed Baby Greens: Mixed greens are the base of this Nicoise salad. Feel free to swap them for fresh spinach or arugula.
  • Green Beans: You’ll want to use green beans or haricots verts that are cleaned and trimmed.  
  • Eggs: I usually make soft boiled eggs by boiling them in water for 6 minutes total. Feel free to boil the eggs for up to 10 minutes if you usually prefer them more set.
  • Olives: Nicoise olives are typically used to make this classic French salad. They are difficult to find in my area, so I like to use a mix of olives for this recipe. Usually I prefer kalamata, oil cured black olives, and Castelvetrano olives. But you could certainly use green olives here as well or just one kind. Be sure to drain the olives before adding them to the salad.
  • Tomatoes: I use vine-ripened tomatoes for this recipe but you can certainly use grape tomatoes, or replace them with 1¼ cups cherry tomatoes.
  • Persian Cucumbers: Persian cucumbers are my favorite because they contain less seeds than typical English cucumbers.
  • Fresh Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed juice gives the lemony dressing the best flavor.
  • Red Wine Vinegar: is the vinegar used for the dressing. We’ll use less of this so that the lemon flavor is more pronounced.
  • Minced Garlic: Minced garlic is an ingredient used in the dressing. Feel free to omit this if you aren’t a fan.
  • Dijon Mustard: Mustard plays a two-part role in a vinaigrette. The first is that it provides flavor. The second, it helps emulsify the dressing so that the acid and oil create a harmonious blend.
  • Honey: Added to the dressing to balance the tart elements, like lemon juice.
  • Olive Oil: I like to use a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for this recipe as it gives the dressing the best flavor.
Showing flakey cod texture

How to make a Cod Nicoise Salad:

  1. Prepare the Cod. Preheat the oven to 425ºF and line a baking sheet with a piece of foil. Remove the cod fillets from the packaging and place them in a single layer on the foil. When the oven is hot, place the baking sheet in the oven. Allow the cod to bake for 25-27 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven when cooked through.
  2. Boil the eggs and beans. While the cod fillets are in the oven, heat a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the eggs and cook them for a total of 6-10 minutes. 6 minutes will yield soft boiled eggs and 10 minutes will yield hard boiled eggs. Add the green beans into the same saucepan during the last 2 minutes. While the beans are blanching, fill a medium bowl with water and add ice to create an ice water bath. When the timer goes off, drain the beans and eggs and immediately plunge them into the ice water bath. This will shock the green beans and aid in retaining their color and stop the eggs from cooking any further. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel them and set them aside. Don’t slice until you’re plating so that the yolks don’t run out.
  3. Make the vinaigrette. Add the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, dijon, honey, salt, and pepper into a small bowl. Slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl in a steady stream while you whisk with the other hand. By the time the olive oil runs out, you should have an emulsified dressing. Taste and adjust with more seasonings as you’d like.
  4. Assemble the salad. Place the baby greens on a large platter and top with green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. Place the prepared cod fillets on top and cut the eggs in half before placing them on the salad. Drizzle the salad with your desired amount of dressing and serve immediately.

This is seriously the lightest, protein-packed lunch or dinner recipe!

A big thank you to our friends over at Sea Cuisine for sponsoring this post!

Product packaging and prepared Nicoise salad
Yield: Serves 2-3

Cod Nicoise Salad

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Cod Niçoise Salad is an easy, yet flavorful lunch or dinner for the warmer months! It starts with a bed of greens topped with fresh olives, juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, potato & cod fillets, soft boiled eggs, blanched green beans, all dressed in an easy, lemony, vinaigrette.

Cod Niçoise salad on platter

Ingredients

  • 1 (8.7 oz) package Sea Cuisine Potato & Herb Cod
  • 4 ounces mixed baby greens
  • 6 ounces green beans, trimmed
  • 2-3 eggs, cold
  • ½ cup olives (use green, Kalamata, etc.)
  • 2 medium tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 Persian cucumbers, sliced

Dressing:

  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon EACH: minced garlic AND dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • ½ teaspoon salt AND black pepper
  • ⅓ cup olive oil

Instructions

  1. COD: Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with a piece of foil. Remove the cod from the packaging, place in a single layer on the foil. When the oven is preheated, bake the cod fillets for 25-27 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven when done.
  2. EGGS AND BEANS: While the cod is baking, bring a medium saucepan with water to boil. Add the eggs to the pot and cook for exactly 4 minutes. Then add green beans to the same pot as the eggs and cook for 2 minutes. While the green beans are blanching, add ice to a medium bowl and fill with water. Using a spider or sieve, remove eggs and beans to the ice water bath. And let them sit in the water for several minutes until cool, then peel the eggs.
  3. DRESSING: In a small bowl or in a mason jar combine the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, dijon, honey, salt, and pepper. Whisk with one hand as you stream in the olive oil with the other hand (or just add it all and shake the jar.)
  4. ASSEMBLE: Add the baby greens to the serving platter. Top with green beans, prepared cod, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cut the eggs in half and place on top. Drizzle with the prepared dressing. Serve immediately.

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