Chilled Green Bean Salad

Happy Monday!

Here is a simple chilled salad, perfect for summer time, and goes perfect with grilled BBQ chicken or ribs.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, clean your beans by snapping the ends if need be. Depending on how big a batch, you may want to do them in batches, but for home use, you can throw up to two pounds in the pot if your pot is big enough.

You may be familiar with blanching. It's the process of cooking something "al dente" meaning still firm to the bite, it's still got a crisp to it. So, for green beans (and any other green vegetable) it only takes a few minutes, 2-3 minutes. 

Have a bowl filled with ice water (lots of ice) ready. I recommend having a strainer in the bowl to catch the beans so you dont have to dig around in ice water for them. 

After you strain your beans, plunge them into your ice water until they have completely stopped cooking and are chilled. Don't leave them sitting in the water longer than necessary. 

I recommend "haricot" beans which are French beans. They are loaded with more complex, deeper flavors than American beans and are virtually interchangeable with string beans, as we call them. 

Then mix your dressing for the salad.

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup Red wine vinegar 
1/2 cup EVO 
1 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1.5 Tsp honey 
1-2 shallots chopped fine
Half a lemon squeeze optional 
Salt and pepper

Now you can add whatever you like! I like to add feta, red onion sliced thin and a little mint. You could add some cherry tomatoes with some fresh herbs, or some sunflower seeds or some nice roasted fingerling potatoes. 
Dont overload your salad, keep it all about the beans. Chill and then serve.