Green Bean Salad w/ Tomatoes & Herbs

Inspiration from the July Garden

Last week we celebrated the first raspberries. We enjoyed them unadorned, delighting in their succulence and flavor. This week we’ve felt equally content eating just-picked green beans, fresh tomatoes and herbs in an improvised Green Bean Salad. All inspired by a hanging garden of green beans and our first few ripe and luscious tomatoes. Garden arugula, local goat cheese and farm-fresh eggs round out the salad with additional body, flavor, color and nutrients.

Loving Our Fresh Green Beans

Picking and eating these incredibly crisp, sweet and tender green beans fresh from the garden inspired this green bean salad. I used them raw as just picked they have the most wonderful sweetness along with their snappiness. So different from the (equally wonderful) silken texture and flavor green beans develop after a short blanching in boiling water.

BTW remove only the stem from green beans. No need to remove the other end unless it’s brown and curled.

Local farm-fresh eggs

Our local organic goat dairy also raises chickens. With deep golden-yolks, these eggs truly taste and look fabulous. Hard-boiled, they make a colorful and tasty addition to this Green Bean Salad.

7 Steps for perfect hard-boiled eggs
Like you, I’ve tried any number of methods for cooking hard-boiled eggs. From starting them in cold or boiling water and either simmering them or leaving them to sit in the hot water. From the best of these methods, I’ve developed these tried-and-true steps for perfect hard-boiled eggs:

Place the eggs in cold, salted water to cover.

Bring the water to a boil over high heat.

Cover the pan and turn off the heat.

Set a timer for 10 minutes.

Drain off the hot water.

Shake the pan to crack the egg shells.

Cover the eggs with ice water.

Peeling your perfect hard-boiled eggs

Here’s a new-to-me trick for peeling eggs from Cook’s Illustrated. Start peeling hard-boiled eggs at their wide end where there’s an air bubble. By peeling this end first, you can more easily remove the thin membrane under the shell—key to effortlessly peeling your perfect hard-boiled eggs.

When life gives you green beans . . . make salads, stews and sides.

Inspired by the delightfully crisp, tender and sweet green beans in our July garden. Prepare Green Bean Salad with either raw and just-picked or quickly blanched beans.

2 servings as an entrée salad Printer-friendly recipes
3-4 servings as a side salad
Active Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

3-4 tomatoes depending on their size, one sliced and the others cut into wedges
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/3 pound fresh green beans, stems removed
1½ cups fresh arugula or watercress, large stems removed
¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Two tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon thinly sliced fresh chives
Leaves from three sprigs of fresh thyme
Leaves from a sprig of Greek oregano, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup crumbled feta or grated or shaved pecorino
8 pitted Kalamata olives
2-4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

INstructions

Place the tomatoes on a dish and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Let the tomatoes marinate while you prepare the rest of the salad ingredients.
Blanch the green beans by dropping them into boiling water. After 4 minutes drain and transfer them to ice water to stop their cooking. Drain and dry the beans.
To assemble the salad, place the sliced tomatoes on the bottom of a platter or individual plates.
Toss together the beans, tomato wedges, arugula, and 3/4^th of the herbs in the balsamic vinegar remaining with the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with the olive oil.
Arrange this mixture on top of the sliced tomatoes. Dot with the cheese and Kalamata olives.
Quarter the eggs and arrange them around the salad.
Sprinkle the Green Bean & Tomato Herb Salad with the remaining herbs and additional salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

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