This green bean salad is simple but delicious and makes a perfect side dish for any grilled meat or fish.
Serves 4
This is an easy side salad packed full of fresh simple flavours. The trickiest part is cooking the green beans and chilling them in ice water in a process known as blanching. Leave them hot for too long they’ll overcook, taste bitter, and start to brown. The perfect green bean should be firm to the bite but still tender with a little crunch.
Green Beans
Green beans, sometimes referred to as French beans, are unopened fruits of the common bean. They are tough when raw and contain proteins that combine with carbohydrates known as lectins. As lectins are stable in acidic conditions such as the human stomach which means it doesn’t break down in the stomach, a function that seeks to defend its plant host from damage. The side effects reported from eating lectins may include vomiting, diarrhoea, and nausea. Fortunately, cooking beans in water or a stew will cause most lectins to become inactive.
What is Blanching?
Cooking green beans for this salad uses a technique known as blanching. Blanching can either fully cook foods or cook halfway. Here, it cooks green beans completely. Blanching vegetables involves the act of submerging them in boiling water quickly until the desired texture is reached.
Then, the vegetables need to be drained, and submerged into a bowl of ice water. The ice-cold conditions put an immediate stop to the cooking process that would otherwise continue if the vegetables were left to cool in their own steam. This technique not only preserves the colour of the green beans, but the texture, and most importantly, the flavour.
Salting Water for blanching these green beans is essential as it helps season the beans before eating, as well as helps break down the fibrous cell membranes, resulting in tenderer green beans.
Ingredients
160g Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
320g Green Beans, Trimmed and Halved
1 Red Onion, Sliced
Juice from ½ Lemon
4 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt/ Pepper
Method
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the beans. Cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Drain, and plunge the beans into ice water. Drain the beans and allow them to air dry.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice, then set aside. You’ll need to whisk the dressing again before serving.
- In a bowl, mix the vegetables together, then toss with the dressing. Season to taste and serve.
Green Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 160 g Cherry Tomatoes Halved
- 320 g Green Beans Trimmed and Halved
- 1 Red Onion Sliced
- Juice from ½ Lemon
- 4 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt/ Pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the beans. Cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Drain, and plunge the beans into ice water. Drain the beans and allow them to air dry.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice, then set aside. You’ll need to whisk the dressing again before serving.
- In a bowl, mix the vegetables together, then toss with the dressing. Season to taste and serve.