Ellie’s Green Bean Salad

There was a time when my family lived on green beans. 

We first began focusing on eating local, seasonal foods when we lived in Atlanta, Georgia.  The local food scene in Atlanta was in its beginning stages and we enjoyed the fledgling farmers’ markets that began popping up around town and meeting the new farmers. 

For some reason during much of the year one of the only reliable local crops was green beans.  Not just during the extremely hot and humid summer, but during most of the year.  Thus we would buy and eat green beans whenever they were local.  Which, like I already said, was for most of the year!

Basically we were eating green beans all the time.  This caused us to get just a little bit sick of them.  It also forced us to use them in more than one way.  We started thinking about how green beans didn’t just have to be boiled and served with a bit of salt and butter.

Fortunately one of our favourite farmers noticed the bean fatigue on his customers’ faces and he shared this family recipe with everyone. 

The recipe has become a family favourite and we love passing it along to others.  We’ve been using our own beans from our garden this summer which makes it extra exciting, but it will work wonderfully with any fresh local green beans.  Try mixing together a few colours of beans for some extra visual interest!

250g green beans, trimmed, chopped, and steamed

2 tbsp. walnuts, chopped and lightly toasted

2 tbsp. parsley, finely chopped

2 tbsp. red onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp. local oil

1 tsp. local vinegar

1 tsp. mustard (any kind)

Salt and cayenne pepper

To steam the beans bring an inch of water to a boil in a pot or pan and set a steamer over it, then add the beans and cover, steaming for 4-5 minutes.  Remove the beans after steaming and transfer them to a bowl.  Chop the walnuts, parsley, and onion.

Briefly toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat, until they are fragrant (just a couple minutes).  

Make the dressing  by whisking together the oil, vinegar, and mustard.

Mix everything together in a bowl, but reserve some of the walnuts and parsley to top the salad.  Season lightly with salt and a dash of cayenne.  

Salad Season - Simple Vinaigrette on Bacon & Radish Salad.

My goal these days is to eat as much salad as possible.  That’s mostly because our backyard garden is bursting with lettuce, kale, spinach, and more!  It’s also because I want to stock up on the leafy goodness before the weather gets too hot and they start turning bitter.  Ultimately though it’s mainly because I love salads and never seem to get sick of the endless possibilities and combinations!

Rather than dump store-bought salad dressings on these wonderful local greens, I find it better to create a spontaneous salad dressing for each unique salad.  The easiest way to make a salad dressing is to start with oil and vinegar (both of which can be local too!).  Then I follow with some garlic or herbs, a bit of mustard, honey, sometimes a bit of mayonnaise or yogurt to help make it more creamy, and finally some salt and pepper.  Here’s what a typical dressing recipe looks like:

·        ¼ local oil (sunflower, soy, canola, etc.)

·        2-3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (preferably raw)

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        1 tbsp. homemade mustard

·        1-2 tsp. honey

·        1 tbsp. yogurt

·        salt and pepper

If the salad features lots of heavier greens like kale and mature spinach I like to add some bacon to the mix (there are some health arguments in favour of this*).  My favourite way to do this is to fry 1 or 2 pieces of bacon, chopped up, and then toss the greens in the pan after turning off the heat.  The greens don’t need to cook, they just get quickly coated with the delicious bacon grease and then thrown in to the salad and everything gets tossed together with a bit of cider vinegar.

Recently I took the bacon idea a bit further and fried pieces of stale sourdough bread and thin slices of fresh radishes in the bacon grease.  This salad turned out awesome.  The end result was a salad featuring fresh lettuce, a bit of kale, croutons and radishes.  A nice addition would have been some crumbled goat cheese but alas, I didn’t have any! 

Another great addition to salads is fruit.  When adding fruit—dried or fresh—I usually leave out the sweetener in the dressing because I don’t want the salad to taste too sweet.  Now that strawberry season is here I’m excited for all the new possibilities!  How about you, care to share any favourite salad additions, or family recipe tips?

*http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20040727/fat-helps-vegetables-go-down

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401137/Is-Lard-Healthy.html

http://nourishedkitchen.com/green-beans-bacon-shallots/