Green, Yellow, and Romano Bean Salad with Sweet Corn and Feta
A fresh and delicious salad with a tonne of flavor!
Prep Time: 15 minutesminutes
Total: 15 minutesminutes
Servings: 6to 8 servings as a snack or side dish.
Ingredients
For the salad:
1/2poundgreen beans
1/2poundyellow wax beans
1/2poundromano beans
3large ears corn
half of a small, fresh, shiny red onion
1pint(scant) basket cherry tomatoes
a few handfuls basil leaves
3tablespoonsolive oil
juice from half to one lemon
salt and black pepper
4ouncesfeta cheese, crumbled (I like sheep feta)
Instructions
Make the salad:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Trim the beans and cut them into 2-3" lengths. Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl. Cook the beans in the boiling water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the beans and plunge them into the ice water to stop the cooking. When cool, drain well.
Shuck the corn, and rinse off any silk. Hold a cob lengthwise in a large, shallow bowl and use a sharp paring knife to slice off the top half of the kernels using a downward motion. (Don't cut too close to the cob, or you will get hard, fibrous bits that make for unpleasant eating.)
Cut the onion half into paper-thin slices and add it to a large bowl along with the prepared beans and corn kernels. Slice the tomatoes in half if larger (leave tiny ones wholand add them to the bowl. Wash and tear the basil leaves into bite-sized bits and add them to the salad. Drizzle with the olive oil and the juice of half a lemon, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Toss well and taste, adding more salt, pepper or lemon if you feel the salad could use it. Transfer to a serving platter, and sprinkle the feta over the top.
Serve the salad right away, or let the flavors meld at room temperature for an hour or two, or chill for up to 1 day.
Notes
Top-notch ingredients make this simple salad sparkle, so use the best of everything that you can find: fresh, in-season vegetables, creamy feta, super-good olive oil.Feel free to play around with quantities and ingredients; I think cucumbers, chives, roasted beets, potatoes, fava beans, shell beans, and sweet peppers would all make lovely additions or substitutions.This salad is good straight away, or it can be chilled for several hours or up to one day. The acidity from the lemon juice will start to discolor the vegetables if left longer than that, but, take it from me, the salad is still tasty two days out.Nutritional values are based on six servings.