This recipe for a delightfully fresh and vibrant salad is perfect alongside Sam's easy tomato galette and a great accompaniment for barbecues and outdoor eating.
Recipe: Green bean summer salad
Perfect for the warmer evenings and great to serve at a BBQ. If you want to be extra fancy, you can remove the skin from the broad beans before serving. You'll want to cook them separately, leave them to cool and remove the slightly tough skins. Broad beans have a much brighter colour when you do this and you're left with the sweet centre, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of roughage either.
In the summer green beans are in abundance and if you grow them yourself you'll be looking at all the possible ways to use your beans up and make the most of them. You don't have to use the Mozzarella pearls in the recipe, you can tear up a larger ball or leave out if you're cooking for vegan diets.
Ingredients
Enough for 4-6
- 200g runner beans
- 200g fine green beans
- 150g broad beans
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1tsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and black pepper
- 3 sprigs mint, leaves picked and torn
- 125g Mozzarella pearls
- 25g hazelnuts, chopped
Method
- Trim the runner beans by cutting into two or three pieces and then slicing lengthways. Place the slices into a colander. Trim the fine beans and place in the colander with the runner beans. Finally, scatter in the broad beans and give everything a good wash.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil and tip in the beans. Boil for a few minutes until the beans are tender but still have a bite. They should not turn khaki. Drain and place in a bowl of ice-cold water. Leave for a minute, then drain and leave to dry.
- Make the dressing by mixing the olive oil, lemon juice and Dijon mustard with a good pinch of salt and pepper until emulsified – you can do this in an old jam jar, just tip in all the ingredients, pop the lid on and give it a good shake.
- Put the beans in a large bowl, tip in the dressing and scatter over the torn mint leaves and Mozzarella pearls. Give the salad a good toss and then tip out into a serving dish or platter. Scatter over the hazelnuts and serve.
Wine recommendations
Match the vibrancy of this salad with equally vibrant flavours in the wines: verdant sauvignon blancs, brisk dry muscat, pinot gris or grüner veltliner would be just perfect.
When it comes to easy entertaining, you can't go wrong with crowd-pleasing bottles and our member's favourites are always a good place to start.
