Green Bean, Tomato & Herb Salad a la Marketman

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Here is a salad we threw together in no time that is a pleasant change from your run-of-the-mill lettuce greens and tomato salad. It is very easy to make, and makes an excellent side dish to festive or simple roasts (chicken, duck, turkey, etc) or fish. Haricots verts are small tender french green beans (see this post for more information) that seem to be popping up in upscale groceries more and more lately. While I have to say that our local versions seem a little large or older than they should be, they are still more appealing than the tougher and large baguio beans that are more commonly on offer.

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To make, clean the beans by removing the stems and tougher tips if necessary. If they aren’t the freshest of the fresh, rehydrate them in a bowl of cold or ice water for 20-30 minutes. Next, bring a pot of water to a boil, and blanche the haricots verts for say a minute or so (depending on size and volume) and immediately drain and transfer the beans to ice water to shock them, stop the cooking process and preserve their intense green color. Drain thoroughly and dry with paper towels. Next, make the dressing. In this case, I chopped up whatever interesting fresh herbs were in the fridge, including Italian parsley, mint and dill. Add this to a vinaigrette of good extra virgin olive oil, some red wine vinegar, mustard if you like it, a touch of fresh lemon juice if you like the brightness, salt, pepper. In a large bowl, add the blanched and cooled beans, some grape or cherry tomatoes, the dressing and toss gently and serve cool or at room temperature. Extremely easy to do and wonderful on the palate. Beans with a bit of resistance left, the sweet grape tomatoes burst in your mouth and a vinaigrette that is well-perfumed with fresh herbs.

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10 Responses

  1. Even better if you use your microwave for fast, easy and less clean up. I always get this in bulk @ Costco to complete our daily serving of 5 fruits and vegetables.

  2. eej, Are Costco vegetables weird? I usually buy my veggies at a farmers’ market, where they are no more than 15 hrs. off the vine. A Costco opened up near me and off we went to check it out. From the cold room we bought packages of French beans, spinach, carrots, romaine lettuce, and grape tomatoes. The beans were dry and tough, the spinach soapy, the romaine chewy, the tomatoes waxed, and only the carrots seemed normal. Is it because they are sold in oxygen deprived packaging for longer shelf life or am I just spoiled by the freshness of the farmers’ market? It’s winter here and we must depend on Florida and California for produce (I try not to buy imported veggies and fruit) and I can hardly wait for spring. Inspite of the bitter cold I returned to the farmers’ market this morning for local celeriac, rutabagas, and parsnips and greenhouse lettuces. No more Costco produce for us.

  3. the salad really looks good and yummy. sister, you are spoiled. I’d love to be able to buy fresh produce from a farmers’ market but Seattle and vicinity is 2 hrs away. Been to one in Bellevue one Tuesday and just beautiful fresh veggies and fruits. bettyq, finally got me a couple bags of dried scallops from Chinatown. Friends were in Vancouver the other day. So I will try making the XO sauce. I did buy a small bottle of it here in Bellingham. And also made the Hainanese chicken, altho I used the cornish game hen. There were just 3 of us. They loved it! Mentioned the blog and they are going to check it out for future recipes.

  4. Have a small package of “french bean” from the local grocer (Key food) in the fridge right now and i just checked the price, $6.99 a pound…I also can’t wait for spring!

  5. @sister: I’m from SF Bay Area and our Costco produce are quite fresh and tasty! I’m sure our fresh picked veggies didn’t stay too long in vacuum sealed containers to get to our dinner table while yours had to endure a long haul flight all the way to NY. I agree, Farmers Market win hands down on fresh produce but Costco follows in close second.

  6. Sister, I must second what eej says: Costco produce in California is usually pretty nice and not a bad choice if you missed the farmers’ market, although where I lived there were at least 2 farmers’ markets each day of the week in the area, and failing that I normally shopped either at my local Trader Joe’s (which had a local farmer’s organic fruit/veg cart out front!) or at a locally-owned market run by owners who made a point of sourcing produce, dairy, etc. from local farmers. I was spoiled by year-round quality produce in California!!!

    I have not bought Costco produce here in the northeast except for carrots and dates, which were OK. I do notice that east coast Costco’s and Trader Joe’s do not carry the same items as those on the west coast Most of the year I now grow my own vegetables (in reaction to the depressing quality of produce in most supermarkets here…most stuff is trucked in from the other side of the country) so I don’t buy as much as I used to from farmers’ markets.

  7. MM, i will surely bookmark this one. but you know nothing beats the KKKK you had before. specially with a fresh anchovies from Pangasinan. wow i bang level ang deliciousness nya. thanks for being there and very generous. idol kita.

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