Green Bean Salad with Tomatoes & Olives

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This salad is quick & easy. The green beans cook in a few minutes before you dunk them in a bowl of cold water. Then you just have to whisk the dressing and drizzle it into the salad.

It doesn’t have any leafy greens. Of course there isn’t anything wrong with lettuce, but you don’t need it for every salad. The great thing about these kinds of salads is that they’re a salad and a side dish in one recipe.

This combination of ingredients is wonderful together. Blanching green beans brings out their flavor, but they are still mild. That’s why they’re so good with salty olives, juicy tomatoes and vinaigrette.

How to Buy the Best Green Beans

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.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Green beans: I prefer using French green beans, also known as haricots verts. They are delicate and thinner than standard green beans or wax beans.
• Tomatoes: The recipe calls for a pint of grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half. They can be red or a mix of red, orange and yellow. What’s most important is that they are ripe.
• Olives: A half-cup of roughly chopped pitted Kalamata olives give the salad bites that are a little bit briny and salty.
• Scallions: Sliced, these green onions are mild and crisp. You can swap them for thinly sliced red onions.
• Parmesan: To get those thin shavings, I use my vegetable peeler on a block of Parmesan cheese. Pecorino would be a great substitute or even crumbled feta cheese. If you want to keep the salad vegan, skip the cheese.
• Parsley: I stir in chopped parsley, and if you happen to have fresh basil in your kitchen, tear some and add that too.

For the dressing you need:

• Garlic: Just one minced clove.
• Mustard: Whole grain Dijon mustard helps to emulsify the dressing and hold it together. It also adds flavor.
• Red wine vinegar gives the vinaigrette acidity. You could also use white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar.
• Honey adds a touch of sweetness to offset the acidity. You can use maple syrup instead, so the vinaigrette is vegan.
• Olive oil: Use high-quality extra virgin olive oil for the best flavor.
• Dried oregano, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper season the vinaigrette

Optional Additions

If you are looking to add something else to the salad, these are all great options:

• Chopped hard-boiled eggs
• Nuts such as walnut, pine nuts or almonds
• Cooked grains such as quinoa, rice, farro or barley

How To Make this Green Bean Salad

1. Cook the green beans. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans. Simmer them for just a few minutes until they are crisp-tender and still have some bite. Then use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a large bowl of ice water to shock them and stop the cooking. The salt in the water keeps them bright green.

2. Combine the salad ingredients. Pat the green beans dry with a towel and put them in a big bowl with the tomatoes, olives, scallions, Parmesan and parsley.

3. Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, mustard, honey, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and olive oil.

4. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad, tossing to coat.

You can make the vinaigrette 3 days in advance. Just store it in a mason jar in the fridge. The olive oil will likely become solid because it will be chilled. If you put the dressing on your kitchen counter and stir it, it will warm up and become liquid again.

Since this salad doesn’t involve lettuce, it’s great for leftovers and won’t get so soggy. Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 days. 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 such as brown rice, quinoa, farro or Italian barley.

More Green Bean Recipes

Minestrone Soup
Roasted Green Beans with Almonds, Breadcrumbs and Feta
Green Bean White Bean Quinoa