One of my favorite beans is the navy bean. I make a lot of bean salads with them because there is no vegetable and no herb that don’t pair well with them. Unlike many other beans they have a mild presence which I find charming.
I nearly always add feta to my bean salads but this one is so good just as it is, so tangy and flavorful, that I didn’t miss the cheese for a second. Considering that I think life without cheese isn’t worth living, that’s saying a lot.
Summer White Bean and Basil Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1 pound green beans
6 cups cooked navy beans
1/2 cup fresh basil dressing
1/2 red onion (sliced very thinly in 1″ long pieces)
Trim the ends off the green beans and cut them in half. Steam the beans just until tender (this usually takes 3-5 minutes).
Put the navy beans into a medium sized bowl and pour the dressing into them,
mixing very well. Stir in the steamed green beans and the onion.
You can eat this right away but it’s best if you let it sit for at least an hour so that the beans can marinate in the dressing for a while.
Recipe Notes: You can add other summery things to this salad such as cucumbers, tomatoes, or feta cheese. If you add tomatoes to it I suggest you only add it to portions you are certain to eat the same day. Tomatoes don’t fare well cut in salads and kept overnight in the fridge. You can use great northern or cannellini beans in place of the navy beans.
This recipe is gluten free: provided you use only gluten free vinegar in the dressing.
This recipe is vegan.
Man, that looks good. I can just imagine the basil on the dressing, too. Mmmmmm….
~Angela 🙂
Ohhh! This sounds super tasty! And I just so happen to have some green beans in the fridge…
Oh my, that basil dressing is good. On a sandwich, as well as a salad. Does it freeze well?
Nicole- you made it? I didn’t even think of using it on a sandwich but that sounds so good- especially now that fresh tomatoes are coming in!
I haven’t tried freezing it so I don’t know if it freezes well. Do other dressings freeze well? I might have to try it while the local basil is still at Harvest Fresh!!
I made it. And then I pretended it was mayonnaise (it was chilled from the fridge, and the olive oil was creamy) and Oh My. I recommend that. Especially with tomatoes.
(When Mr. Black is not home, I also like to make a big green salad, heat up a faux chicken patty to crackling hot, dice it, toss it hot into the salad and douse the whole thing well in vinaigrette … or, now, your basil dressing. Makes a lovely supper).
It never occurred to me to try freezing a dressing until I tried your basil dressing and swooned. So I don’t know how well they do. Possibly not well. I’m actually not always as thrilled with my frozen pesto as I’d like to be, so I’m debating the whole issue of freezing more than a tiny bit of it — and pesto without parmesan is very good, but it’s not fall down on the ground good.
However, I have recently learned of the existence of pistou (how did I miss this?) which does not traditionally contain cheese. Or nuts. So I have to try that. And freeze some.
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