Smoked Salmon Salad (Nicoise-Style)

twissis's Note:

I am very lucky. I love fresh & smoked salmon, but never have to use the canned variety & even have a salmon cookbook. This recipe is the 1st of 2 I found at justsmokedsalmon.com & they acknowledged Marilou Robinson of Portland, OR. Her intro said "The ingredient list looks long, but none of it takes much time to prepare & it can all be done ahead of time. Because this salad needs to be made ahead & chilled, it is a good choice for a Sun night supper. When guests arrive, heat an assortment of fancy rolls from your favourite bakery & relax w/your company. Everyone will be impressed & well-fed. The recipe can easily serve as many as you like by just increasing the amt of ingredients & using a larger platter." Enjoy! (Time has been estimated & does not include time for beans, eggs & potatoes to cool after they are cooked)

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 (10 -12 ounce) bag romaine lettuce (torn into bite-size pieces)
• 1 head butter lettuce (torn into bite-size pieces)
• 8 ounces smoked salmon (very thinly sliced)
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen green beans (cooked, drained & chilled)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1 small green bell pepper (cut into rings)
• 1 small red onion (sliced & separated into rings)
• 3 eggs (hard-boiled, peeled & cut into wedges)
• 3 small red potatoes (cooked, chilled & quartered)
• ½ cup black olives
• ¾ cup vinaigrette dressing (bottled red wine)
• 2 tablespoons capers

Directions:

1. Cook beans, hard-boil eggs & potatoes. Set aside & allow to completely cool. While they are cooling, prepare & slice onion & bell pepper.
2. Line a lrg platter w/lettuce & mound smoked salmon in the centre. Arrange beans, tomatoes, pepper rings, onion rings, egg wedges, potatoes & olives over the lettuce & around the salmon.
3. Cover platter & chill at least 2 hours Just B4 serving, drizzle w/salad dressing & sprinkle w/capers.
4. HINT: To easily slice smoked salmon, put it in the freezer. When nearly frozen, remove from the freezer & use your sharpest knife to shave very thin slices.

Reviews

[kiwidutch]

Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful! We were starving and late home and tired and I still managed to make this in 30 minutes... we didn't bother with chilling it, we just piled the salmon into the middle and ate it with the potatoes, fresh green beans and hard boiled eggs warm. I had no clue what was meant by "vinegrette dressing - bottled red wine" and didn't have my favourite French dressing made up in the fridge so just used some Fair Trade Balsamico "Splash"and a good portugese oilive oil drizzled over the top. Mighty Good Indeed !!! The supermarket was out of capers when we did the shopping last week and niether DH or I like onions raw, so they didn't get included, but wow, these were very minor omissions and the rest was so fresh and delicious that they weren't missed. Best of all was the visual effect, this dish looks stunning, so much so that a large plate of this will be at each end of my buffet table when we do a big double birthday party next weekend. Please see my rating system: 5 brillient stars for a healthy salad that is more than "just salad", you can add your favourite dressing and just enjoy enjoy enjoy! Amazing too as a quick but company worthy dish, or a weekday meal in a hurry, how versitile is that? Brilliant !!! Thanks!