Ready in 10 minutes, this simple green bean salad with cherry tomatoes, Parmesan and olives is fresh, crisp and full of crunch. It can be served as a side dish, too.
I’m happy to report that what started as a spring fling with green beans is still going strong even now that we’re in the heart of summer. We’ve moved past the infatuation stage, and at this point, things are feeling pretty official.
But I have to admit that this relationship isn’t all my doing. A big thank you goes to my weekly farm share box. For what seems like the last month and a half, I’ve ended up with a generous bag of green beans in my CSA. And with that has come the pressure to prep and cook them in different ways.
Always one to mix my beans, I’ve been making a green bean white bean quinoa that could be considered a salad or side. A dish you can serve in more than one way is always a huge bonus.
Lately, my favorite way to eat through my CSA surplus is to make green beans the main green in my salads, not even bothering with adding arugula or other lettuces. And that’s how this green bean tomato olive salad happened the first time.
It was the end of the week, and I was short on leafy greens. I had just enough spinach for my morning smoothie, but not enough for that and a salad too. In my never-ending mission to consume a good amount of greens and vegetables each day, I decided to keep things simple and go with green beans only.
I can’t tell you how great it was to have a salad base with that much crunch! For the rest, I kept the salad simple with olives, ripe cherry tomatoes and Parmesan and mustard vinaigrette.
Even though you can buy green beans at the grocery year round, the season technically runs from about May to October. You will always find the best veggies at the farmer’s market. If you have access to one, I encourage you to shop there.
Green beans that are fresh will snap when you bend them. They shouldn’t have any brown spots on them either.
Instead of trimming each green bean individually, you can arrange a group of them in a line on your cutting board and take your chef’s knife to trim all those ends at once.
But don’t do that in advance. Since you don’t want them to dry out, wait to trim the green beans until you are ready to cook them.
This is what you need:
As mentioned, this salad can be thought of as a side too. It’s great for lunch or dinner with something like roasted Mediterranean vegetables and halloumi, grilled tofu shawarma or barbecue veggie tofu skewers.
Since this salad doesn’t involve lettuce, it’s great for leftovers and won’t get soggy. I do like to let it sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving, so it’s not as cold as it would be straight from the fridge.
You can also stretch what you have left into another meal by combining it with cooked grains like quinoa, Italian barley or farro.
Minestrone Soup
Roasted Green Beans with Almonds, Breadcrumbs and Feta
Ready in 10 minutes, this green bean tomato olive salad with Parmesan and scallions is fresh and full of crunch. It can be served as a side, too.
Ready in 10 minutes, this simple green bean salad with cherry tomatoes, Parmesan and olives is fresh and full of crunch. It can be served as a side dish, too.
Keywords: green bean salad, cold green bean salad
This was absolutely delicious. A keeper.
★★★★★