Our friend John served us this garlic tossed green bean and lemon salad and it was so delicious, I couldn’t wait to try to make it myself. Since then, I’ve made it several times. It’s that good. I’ve tried to make sure that my recipe does justice to John’s delicious original.
This salad is great with fresh lettuce, heirloom tomatoes and green beans from a local farm, but I think that we’ll be able to pull off a decent version even when farmland is dormant for the winter and we need to get by with goodies from Trader Joe’s and other produce suppliers.
This recipe makes 4 servings.
Tips
- I added a good blue cheese from a New England cheese maker.
- Turn this into a full meal with the addition of chickpeas, cannellini beans or wedges of hard-boiled eggs.
Ingredients
- Medium head of good lettuce (for example, red or green leaf lettuce, bib lettuce or baby lettuce), washed and torn into pieces
- 2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
- 12 ounces French green beans
- Juice of half a lemon (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (optional)
Directions
Add the lettuce to a large salad bowl.
Add the olive oil to a large skillet on medium high heat. When heated, add the green beans and cook them for a few minutes. They will begin to turn bright green. Lower the heat a little and add the garlic. Cook for a few more minutes, stirring the ingredients. You don’t want the garlic to brown. Add salt and pepper. Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice to the pan and toss again. Let the beans cool.
Add tomatoes to the salad bowl. Add the green beans, scraping the garlic, olive oil and lemon juice into the bowl. Add the blue cheese if you are using it. Toss the salad. Taste a lettuce leaf. If you want more oil, lemon juice, salt or pepper, add it and toss again.
Related Posts
After you make the garlic tossed green bean and lemon salad, here are some other salad recipes to try: