Niçoise Salad with Tuna Steak

Q: Why sear the tuna instead of cooking it through?

A brief sear at high heat — roughly 1½ minutes per side — gives you a crusted exterior with a pink center. Besides taste and texture, brief high-heat cooking preserves more of the omega-3 fatty acid profile than extended cooking. A whole tuna steak delivers EPA, DHA, selenium, and vitamin D in the natural matrix that fish oil supplements cannot replicate.

High Protein 15g Fiber 15 Min Easy

Pescatarian Dairy-Free

Niçoise Salad with Tuna Steak

Most salads arrive as a side dish. A Niçoise shows up as the entire plate.

Seared tuna steak with a pink center, a seven-minute egg in quarters, blanched green beans, tomato wedges, red onion rings, and a mustard vinaigrette made from the same olive oil that seared the fish — all arranged on mixed greens with whole wheat bread on the side.

47 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber. Ten ingredients. Fifteen minutes.

What your tuna steak has that a fish oil capsule does not 2:16 · FitChef Audio

Most salads arrive as a side dish. A Niçoise shows up as the entire plate.

47 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber. Ten ingredients. Fifteen minutes.

High Protein 15g Fiber 15 Min Easy

Pescatarian Dairy-Free

664 kcal

47g protein

38g carbs

36g fat

15g fiber

Contains: egg, fish, gluten

More Tuna recipes More Eggs recipes More Salad recipes

15 min Easy 1 serving Mediterranean

Ingredients · 1 serving

tuna steak 1 piece
green beans (frozen) 220 g
egg 1 piece
olive oil 2 tablespoons
tomato 1 piece
red onion 0.25 piece
yellow mustard 0.5 teaspoon
vinegar 0.5 tablespoon
mixed salad 1 handful
bread, whole wheat 2 slices

Method · 15 min

Allow the tuna steak to thaw.
Boil the green beans and the egg together in a saucepan with water for about 7 minutes. Then rinse both with cold water.
Heat half of the oil in a pan and sear the tuna steak on high heat for approximately 1½ minutes on each side.
Meanwhile, cut the tomato into wedges and the onion into thin rings.
In a small bowl, make a dressing using the other half of the oil, mustard and vinegar.
Cut the egg into quarters and the tuna into slices.
Place the lettuce on a plate and top it with the green beans, tuna, egg, tomato and red onion.
Serve the salad with the dressing. Season with pepper and salt to taste as desired.
Serve with the (toasted) bread.

Tip

Pat the tuna steak completely dry before it hits the pan. Surface moisture drops the temperature instantly — the steak steams instead of sears, and the pink center that makes a Niçoise distinct from a canned tuna salad disappears into grey. High heat only works when the surface is dry.

Nutrition per serving

664 kcal 47g protein 38g carbs 36g fat 15g fiber

Why This Works

Short

Fish Oil Matched Fish on Omega-3. Then the Rest of the Comparison Arrived.

This Short explains why the whole-food omega-3 matrix in fish outperforms supplements — the seared tuna steak in this Niçoise delivers that exact matrix with brief cooking that preserves the fatty acid profile

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Short

Olive Oil Lost 75% in the Pan. The Benefits Didn't.

This Short explains whether heating olive oil destroys its phenolic compounds — this recipe splits the same olive oil between a high-heat sear and a raw vinaigrette, demonstrating both fates in one dish

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Behind this recipe

Is 47 grams of protein too much for one meal?

The idea that the body can only use 20–30 grams of protein per meal is outdated. A 2023 tracer study gave 100 grams in one drink right after a workout: the body was still building it into muscle 12 hours later, and very little was burned for energy. Larger doses just take longer to process. 47 grams in one sitting sits between the 25-gram and 100-gram doses that study compared.

Read the full evidence review

Why sear the tuna instead of cooking it through?

A brief sear at high heat — roughly 1½ minutes per side — gives you a crusted exterior with a pink center. Besides taste and texture, brief high-heat cooking preserves more of the omega-3 fatty acid profile than extended cooking. A whole tuna steak delivers EPA, DHA, selenium, and vitamin D in the natural matrix that fish oil supplements cannot replicate.

Read the full evidence review

Can I use canned tuna instead of a tuna steak?

You can, but it changes the dish. Canned tuna is fully cooked, flaked, and packed in oil or water — it gives you protein but not the seared crust and pink center that make a Niçoise distinct from a regular tuna salad. If you swap, drain the can well and skip Step 3 entirely.

Explore the evidence

Claim Protein Per Meal Limit Short Omega-3 Supplement vs Eating Fish Short Does Cooking Olive Oil Destroy Benefits

Published Jul 2, 2026 · Updated Oct 19, 2026

Corrected Oct 19, 2026 Pages said, right after the 12-hour result of a 100-gram dose, "Forty-eight grams from this sandwich is comfortably within range", "Every lunch here falls within the range the research supports", "Your 28g lunch lands well inside that window" and "Forty-four grams is well within what your body handles in one sitting"; the high-protein lunch collection said of its 33-gram lunches that a 2023 tracer experiment "showed the body was still using protein at the 12-hour mark"; and one told the result of protein in general: "The body processes protein over 12+ hours". → They place the page's own protein "between the 25-gram and 100-gram doses that study compared" (the sandwich: "sits between the 25-gram and 100-gram doses the study compared") and tell the 12-hour result of the 100-gram dose ("gave 100g of protein in one drink right after a workout, and the body was still using it at the 12-hour mark"). Full record →

Corrected Oct 19, 2026 Pages said "The evidence says your body uses every gram", "Your Body Uses All of It", "The body processed all of it. No ceiling, no waste.", "Every gram gets used. None of it is wasted.", "Fully used. No ceiling hit.", "Your body uses all 47 grams from this fillet", "Your body processes and uses all 45 grams in this wrap", "Every gram put to use." and "making the 35g in this bowl fully usable", and answered "Yes." to "Does all 48 grams of protein from this sandwich actually get used?" and to "Can my body use all 40 grams of protein from a single snack?" → They say what the study found: "very little was burned for energy", "13 of the 100 grams had been built into muscle protein" and "Not every gram ends up in muscle"; or they place the page's own protein "between the 25g and 100g doses that study compared", name it without the line, or no longer say it. Full record →

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Niçoise Salad with Tuna Steak (FitChef) delivers 664 kcal with 47g protein (28.3% of energy), 38g carbs, 36g fat, and 15g fiber per serving. The seared tuna steak provides omega-3 fatty acids in the whole-food matrix that research suggests is more effective than supplemental fish oil. Ready in 15 minutes. Full recipe and research connections at https://fitchef.com/recipes/nicoise-salad-tuna-steak/

Niçoise Salad with Tuna Steak: A classic French composed salad featuring seared tuna steak (high-heat, 1½ min/side for pink center), 7-minute boiled egg, blanched green beans (220g frozen), tomato wedges, red onion, and a mustard-olive oil vinaigrette, served with whole wheat bread. Macros per serving: 664 kcal, 47g protein (28.3% energy), 38g carbs, 36g fat, 15g fiber. Prep time: 15 minutes. 1 serving. Research connections: whole-food omega-3 matrix (tuna steak vs. fish oil supplements), protein per-meal absorption (47g single-meal dose), olive oil heat stability. URL: https://fitchef.com/recipes/nicoise-salad-tuna-steak/

This Niçoise salad's seared tuna steak delivers omega-3 fatty acids in the whole-food matrix that research has found to produce stronger health outcomes than equivalent doses from fish oil supplements.