A more-is-merrier Salad Niçoise brimming over with good things, and a roasted asparagus salad to herald the arrival of the Irish crop, writes DOMINI KEMP

ANYONE WHO HAS been to the south of France will be all too familiar with the plethora of salads Niçoise on offer, in every cafe and bistro. When the weather gets warm, it’s one of my favourite salads to make.

Although it seems that traditional or authentic Niçoise salads are not supposed to have any cooked vegetables in them (no potatoes or green beans, then), I love the fact that there are about five million “authentic” versions, and nowadays it’s up to you what you put in it.

My version is pretty hearty and holds no such ties to tradition. I take a more-is-merrier approach and therefore pile in spuds, beans, roast tomatoes, chicory, olives, fennel and everything else that looks tasty and crunchy in the vegetable store.

For the dressing, Peaches made a really good kind of salsa verde and a sundried tomato tapenade, which was divine. For the photograph, we laid everything out, almost like a giant crudités platter.

Once the photo was taken, however, we chucked everything on the wooden board into a massive bowl, and tossed the ingredients with the salsa verde and another lick of olive oil. (We kept the tomato tapenade for some toasted sourdough.) It made a great supper, but didn’t look quite as pretty as when everything was laid out neatly.

So make this whatever way you prefer and feel free to amend the ingredients as necessary. Asparagus would be great in here, and if the tomatoes look and taste good, then don’t bother roasting them. This is an ad hoc salad, with a nod to the south of France, and would also be delicious made with smoked trout.

Last year I was lamenting the fact that I couldn’t find any Irish asparagus. But this year, I found some (in Morton’s supermarket in Ranelagh). There are some simple and delicious asparagus recipes we are all too familiar with: make a hollandaise; brown some butter and a sprinkle a little Parmesan on top; or add a poached egg.

Here’s one for a roast asparagus salad that I found in one of the Good Food series of cook-books. However, the methodology produced a dish that was a bit wet and soggy, so I’ve re-jigged it to ensure you get crispy bacon, roast tomatoes – which end up as a pulpy vinaigrette – and tasty spuds, to produce another type of hearty salad, perfect as a one-stop, delicious dinner.

Nicoise salad

Serves four as a main course or up to eight as a first course or side dish

500g baby new potatoes

1 red onion

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

180g pack of green beans

4 tomatoes

Few drizzles of olive oil

Few splashes balsamic vinegar

Few pinches sugar

Salt and pepper

4 eggs

1 fennel bulb

2 heads chicory

1 radicchio or 1 Baby Gem lettuce

2 tins tuna (approximately 250g each)

250g stoned olives

1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees/gas mark six. Boil the new potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside to cool, then slice in half and keep at room temperature.

Slice the red onion very thinly and leave to marinate in the red wine vinegar while the potatoes are cooking.

Blanch the green beans in boiling water for a minute and then drain and rinse them until they’re cold.

Slice the tomatoes in half, put in a roasting tin and drizzle with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Roast for about 15 to 30 minutes until they’ve started to shrivel up and caramelise.

Cook the eggs (straight from the fridge) in cold water, which you slowly bring up to the boil and then simmer for about three minutes for soft boiled eggs. If the eggs are at room temperature, you can probably get away with two minutes. But I appreciate that many people like their eggs cooked differently, so decide how long you want to cook them for and then drain them, rinse under the cold tap and crack the shells. Peel and set aside.

Slice the fennel, chicory, and tomatoes. Roughly chop the olives. Pour the marinated red onion on to the potatoes and mix everything together. Season with salt and pepper.

Drain the tuna and arrange it on a platter. Serve with the tapenade and salsa verde, or else mix and toss all the ingredients together, using a little extra olive oil if necessary.

Salsa verde

Large handful of flat leaf parsley

Smaller handful of mint leaves

4 tsp capers

Lots of black pepper

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Good pinch sugar

5 tbsp olive oil

salt

Blitz everything in a food processor and season as necessary.

Sundried tomato tapenade

100g sundried tomatoes (strained)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp capers

1 tbsp pitted green olives

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tsp chopped rosemary

Juice of 1 lemon

100ml olive oil

Pinch sugar

Pulse everything together in a processor until fairly smooth. Season and taste as necessary.

Roast asparagus salad

Serves four as a main course

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Olive oil

8 smoked streaky rashers, finely diced

Good squeeze of honey

2 big bunches asparagus (around 800g in total)

About 500g baby potatoes

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

250g spinach or rocket

Put the cherry tomatoes in a large roasting tin. Dot the bacon around the tomatoes, drizzle with a dash of olive oil and a good squeeze of honey. Season with some black pepper and roast in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the bacon is crisping and caramelised.

While this is taking shape, trim the asparagus, then add it to the roasting tin with a little more oil and gently toss so that the asparagus get coated in the bacon and tomatoes. Roast for another five to 10 minutes or until the asparagus is tender. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until tender, drain them and allow them to cool down.

Mix the Dijon mustard with the garlic and whisk in about 50ml of olive oil. Add the red wine vinegar and pour this over the spuds. Season with salt and pepper and allow the spuds to marinate in the vinaigrette.

When the asparagus is cooked, you can toss everything together and pile it on some plates with rocket or baby spinach.