Category:
Salad

Young Beans

Ingredients:

green beans
olive oil
balsamic or malt vinegar
salt
sugar
pimiento

If you see some very young green beans, snap them up for this recipe. Better yet; grow some yourself and pick young pods each day which have not yet developed any stringiness. When you've saved up enough of them, proceed with the recipe.
This is for half a kilo, about a pound, of beans. Any of the edible podded cultivars will do, green, yellow, snap or even Asian long beans (Vigna sesquipedalia.)
Pour a tablespoon of good olive oil into your bowl. Add a spoonful of balsamic or malt vinegar, a little salt and even less sugar .
Seed and cut a ripe pimiento or other ripe, red, sweet capsicum into thin slices as long as a finger joint. Add them to the vinaigrette mixture. An hour or two is not too long to leave this to work up extra flavour.
Leave the beans whole if they are very young, and lack strings. Otherwise top, string, and cut them into finger joint lengths. Set them to boil in just enough boiling salted water to cover. Before they are quite done, quickly drain them, reserving the cooking liquor for another use.
While they are still hot, mix them with the vinaigrette. Leave them at room temperature for serving two hours later, or refrigerate for later use.

Notes:

Recently we tried the green beans our seed supplier called Montpelier French filet; they are slender, tender and of excellent flavour, and had to be picked almost daily when in season. In other words, perfect for the home garden. You wouldn't see them sold commercially, they're too delicate to ship or store.

Recipe Index

Salads

Summer Squash Salad  | Blood Orange Salad | Cantaloupe in Vinaigrette |    Warm Céci Salad  | Autumn Garden Salad  |  Tart Salad | Garlic Flower and Snow Pea Salad | Green Mango Warm Salad |