Green flat bean salad with lemon and
fresh mint
Today morning I had to create a few salads. Requirements were: easy to prepare, summer flavour, good besides fresh grilled lamb filet.
I tried a few things and immediately nominated this one for winner.
Green flat beans are very fine vegetables to eat with lamb. There are many ways to prepare them - be it softly steamed with seasalt, oliveoil and summer savory or a bit stronger with dried tomatoes onions and a bit of garlic.
The following variation with lemon and mint is more fresh, tastes like summer and is served cold as salad. It can be easily prepared the day before you have a barbecue.
The ingredients
- fresh flat beans
- one organic lemon
- one mild white onion
- 2 tea spoons of honey, the best to use in here is a greek thyme honey
- crunched black pepper
- mild white vinegar
- strong green olive oil, I used a wonderful dark green greek one from Crete
- crunched sea salt
- fresh crunched black pepper
- a bunch of very fine sliced fresh mint
Cooking the vegetables
Wash the beans, remove the ends and cut them into slices of 2 cm. Cut the onion into small pieces. Steam the bean slices softly in hot, salty water for about 12 minutes, then add the small sliced onion pieces and steam it another five minutes. Decant the hot water an leave the vegetables in the bowl with ice water for around 5 minutes: that keeps their colour. Remove the water and let the vegetables drip down for a while.
The dressing
Wash the lemon and rub off the peel in very small zests. Press the juice out of the lemon an put in in a big bowl. Add honey, sea salt, pepper, olive oil and after a quick taste the right amount of mild white vinegar. Stir a smooth dressing out of it.
Add the vegetables and the sliced mint into the bowl and mix it carefully. Cover the salad whith a plate and let it rest for a minimum of 5 hours.
Before you serve it - taste it again, sometimes you have to add some salt or lemon juice. In the end add some fresh mint leaves.
dolce vita ahoi • monika ebert • mobile minds
