Category Archives: Summer Recipes

Beet Arugula Salad with Cashews

cashew beet saladMy sister and I went out to lunch with our dad on father’s day.  Because we’re so broke he actually took us out.  We had this amazing beet salad.  We decided to make our own version of it at home.

Taras beet saladYou don’t need a recipe for this.  We steamed some cubed peeled beets.  We chopped up some lightly toasted cashews.  The salad we had at The Lark Creek Tavern had pistachios on it but those are expensive and we didn’t have any.  Easy sub to make.

cashew beet salad 3So you put a bed of arugula on each plate.  Put about a half a cup of beets.  Then crumble some feta over it.  Or not.  This salad is just as good without cheese.  Then you sprinkle chopped cashews over it.  Slice up an avocado and put about a quarter of one on each plate.  Unless the avocado is tiny.  Then use half.  Or not.  Then dress with vinaigrette.  Or whatever you like.  We used my standard mustard vinaigrette.

My sister plated this and I think she did an awesome job!

If you need a portable recipe for the End Times I’ve got you covered!  I just posted the first recipe on The Post Apocalyptic Kitchen —> Check it out!

Cherry Tomato Gratin Recipe

Cherry tomatoes are often the first ones to ripen in the garden and the last to give up to dropping fall temperatures.  Most people who grow them eventually get to a point where they need to figure out something else to do with them besides using them in salads or eating them right off the vine.  This is what you do with them.  It’s simple, it’s fast to prepare, and it makes a fantastic side dish.

This recipe is based on one from “The Vegetarian Table: France” by Georgeanne Brennan, one of my favorite cookbooks.

Cherry Tomato Gratin Recipe

serves 4

Cherry Tomato Gratin Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs cherry tomatoes
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 8 oz ricotta cheese
  • 1/4 cup basil, julienned
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°. Divide the tomatoes into four 8oz ramekins. Drizzle half a tablespoon of olive oil over each dish of tomatoes.
  2. In a bowl, mix the ricotta with most of the basil (set aside just a little for the top of each gratin), the garlic, salt, and pepper.
  3. Divide the ricotta between the four ramekins – top each dish with it, sprinkle with Parmesan, and add the rest of the basil.
  4. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, then finish by broiling just until slightly browned (only a couple of minutes). Let it cool down before eating because those tomatoes retain heat well!
  5. Gluten free recipe. (I don’t know if any store bought ricotta has gluten in it but I used my homemade and it is definitely gluten free)

Notes

If you want to make your own ricotta - it's easy! How To Make Homemade Ricotta

http://stitchandboots.com/2011/09/24/cherry-tomato-gratin-recipe/

 

Summer Squash and Tomato Pasta Recipe

Every summer I see recipes crop up whose sole purpose is to perpetrate the old zucchini joke.  “Got more zucchini than you know what to do with?  Here’s one way to use it up!”  I hate that old gag.  If people felt burdened by having abundant zucchini every year they’d stop growing it.  I may hate that joke because for some reason my zucchini plants never do go rogue on me and I’d love it if they did.  I’d love to have “too much” summer squash.  If you have that much of it you can shred it and freeze it in two cup portions for making zucchini bread all winter.

So I’m not offering up this recipe as a way to “use up” your annoying abundance.  I’m offering this one up for sheer love of summer squash as a delicacy I only eat fresh for a few months of the year and look forward to more than Christmas.  If you love summer squash as much as I do then you need to make this dish, or make up your own variation of it.  It’s simple, it’s aromatic, and nothing in the dish hides behind anything else.

Summer Squash and Tomato Pasta Recipe

serves 4 to 6

Summer Squash and Tomato Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large onion, quartered and then sliced thinly
  • 2 zucchinis or 4 crooknecks or 6 patty pans, diced on the thin side
  • 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
  • 5 large tomatoes, cored and diced chunky
  • 1/2 bunch basil, julienned
  • 1 tsp salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • 1 lb angel hair pasta

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan on med/high heat and then add the onion. Stir the onions frequently to prevent burning. When they begin to brown a little add the squash. Saute until the squash is tender and lightly browned.
  2. Set a big pot of salted water on to boil.
  3. Add the garlic to the onions and squash and saute for about two minutes then add the tomatoes.
  4. Boil your pasta now and it should be ready just about the same time as your sauce.
  5. Stir the sauce frequently to keep the tomatoes from sticking. they should be breaking down nicely but you should still have some chunks left when you’re done (depending on the type of tomatoes used). Right before you’re ready to drain the pasta add the basil, salt, and pepper to the sauce and cook and stir for about two minutes and then turn the heat off. Add the pasta and toss it well.
  6. Eat. I added about a bucket of Parmesan to mine because I love Parmesan and I look for any excuse to eat it. It’s a hard habit to break but I did eat a couple of bites of this pasta without any and it was excellent. Next time I might just eat a bare bowlful.

Notes

If I’d had any Kalamata olives I would have added some. I have noted produce size because with homegrown especially there is such a wide range of sizes and that can affect the amount of sauce you have for the pasta. For this one I actually used 1/2 of an enormous yellow zucchini but I am very good at estimating equivalents and two medium sized ones would be the same. You can mess with recipes like this a lot and still make it fantastic. So don’t be afraid to play. You could use twice the onion and really caramelize them before adding anything else and that would have made a sweeter sauce.

http://stitchandboots.com/2011/08/20/summer-squash-and-tomato-pasta-recipe/

Cabbage Garlic Soup Recipe for a Summer Cold

Getting summer colds is the pits.  Just when you think you’re out of the woods you get smacked in the head with congestion, headaches, a sore throat, and low energy.  As everyone knows, you can’t cure a cold.  The strategy should always be to lessen the symptoms and the duration of the cold as much as possible.  So when I woke up at 4am three nights ago with all the symptoms of a cold coming on suddenly, I immediately took a bunch of nasty-huge multi vitamins meant to boost the immune system (the ones I use are “Wellvitamins” and I only use them when coming down with something because they’re very expensive) and I drink lots of elderberry syrup, water, and sometimes I make up some ginger and honey tea or sage and honey tea.

That’s all well and good, but if you feed yourself crap while doing all the other good things you should be doing, it’s like shooting yourself in the foot.  First thing you should do when you feel like you’re coming down with any kind of cold or flu is make soup.  I believe that all soups have healing powers, even the cheesy ones, but if you’re getting sick I’d like to recommend making a vegetable soup full of vitamin C, garlic, and cayenne pepper.  Like this cabbage and garlic soup I’m sharing here.

Cabbage is full of vitamin A, C, calcium, and potassium.  Tomatoes are full of vitamin A (!!!), vitamin C, and (you guessed it) potassium.  Potatoes are full of vitamin C and more Potassium than cabbage and tomatoes combined.  Carrots don’t have much vitamin C to speak of but as everyone knows they are crammed with vitamin A and what many people may not know is that they are also quite rich in potassium.  All the ingredients in this soup will fill you with vitamins and minerals.  The navy beans are rich in calcium, phosphorous, and more potassium than any body could need.

The garlic (there’s a lot of it in this soup) is great for boosting the immune system and cayenne pepper is great for purifying your blood and helping it circulate better.  In addition to that, the cayenne will help loosen phlegm which will help clear your sinuses.

Cabbage Garlic Soup Recipe for a Summer Cold

10 servings

Cabbage Garlic Soup Recipe for a Summer Cold

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 quarts of water (more if needed)
  • 1 cup navy beans, uncooked
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 4 carrots, chopped med
  • 1/2 head cabbage, chopped
  • 3 med. potatoes, diced med
  • 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (or 1 quart of home canned)
  • 12 cloves garlic, pressed or minced fine
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne
  • 1 1/2 tsp oregano

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot on med/high heat and add the onion and bay leaves. Saute until the onions lightly brown.
  2. Add the water, beans, and salt. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to med/low and cook until beans are tender. The time may vary, for me it was about one hour. Be sure to check on them and stir them while cooking.
  3. Add everything else into the pot and turn heat back up to med/high. At this point it should be soupy but the amount of water you need may vary depending on how much of it cooked off while cooking the beans. All the vegetables should be completely covered with broth.
  4. Bring the soup back to a boil and then turn the heat down a little and let it cook until all the vegetables are tender. Probably about 30 minutes.

Notes

This soup makes 10 servings. I don’t make small batches of soup because we eat it for leftovers and sometimes freeze it. You can easily halve this recipe. I used 12 cloves of garlic but you can use more. Do it! The next time I make this soup I plan to increase the garlic up to an entire head. Once the soup is cooked through it doesn’t seem very garlicky.

Play with the amount of cayenne. A very little can be really hot so go cautiously. It should be hot enough to make you sweat a little and make your nose run after you eat it. It should not be so hot that it’s painful to eat and burns a hole in your eye socket. Unless you like pain like that, I won’t judge.

If you are inexperienced making soups I suggest you read my soup philosophy post- it will help you understand soups better and give you the confidence to play with them.

http://stitchandboots.com/2011/06/18/cabbage-garlic-soup-recipe-for-a-summer-cold-2/

 

Spicy Corn Chowder

summer corn chowder 2.jpgMany years ago when I was going to fashion design school in San Francisco, a friend took  me to a cafe near Union Square on a blustery cold day.  I ordered their corn chowder.  It was better than any corn chowder I’d ever had and I have wished many times over the years that I had been paying attention to my food then the way I do now and taken notes.  It was thick, not runny; it was creamy but not too milky; it was spicy without being heavy with heat.  It had cilantro in it.

That cafe has been closed down for at least 15 years.

For some reason I’ve been remembering that bowl of chowder I ate 20 years ago a lot this summer, so I decided it was time to recreate it from distant memory.  After several batches I present to you one of the best things you can make with summer corn.  Chowder sounds like it’s meant to only be eaten in the cold weather but corn is at its best in the summer so if you can still get some at your farmer’s market, give this a try right away, even if it’s still hot where you live.

My friend Chelsea (a major inspiration for starting Stitch and Boots) suggested I make a stock out of the corn cobs and it was brilliant because the soup had a lot more flavor than when I’ve made it in the past.  It really isn’t too much trouble.  Cook the cobs down while you prep the rest of your ingredients and do some other kitchen chores.  It’s well worth the effort make the stock out of the cobs.

corn stack 2.jpgSpicy Corn Chowder
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

7-8 ears of corn (5 cups corn kernels)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper (or 1/4 tsp)
1 quart corn cob stock
1 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 med. onion diced fine
1 celery stalk sliced thinly
4 med round potatoes diced med/small
1 can evaporated milk (or 1 cup milk)
2-3 jalapenos, roasted, peeled, and finely minced
2 tbsp finely minced cilantro

Sour cream for garnish

corn stock 2.jpgMethod:

Bring two quarts of water to a boil in a stock pot.  Cut the kernels off the corn and set the kernels aside in a bowl for later.  Break the corn cobs in half and put them in the pot.  Boil the cobs until the stock is reduced to 1 quart (this takes about 40 minutes for me but times may very).

Remove the cobs and set the stock aside.

In a soup pot prepare a roux using the flour, butter, salt, and pepper.  Pour the corn cob stock slowly into the roux whisking briskly to remove any lumps and once all the stock is poured, let the veloute* thicken.

burnt on purpose peppers 2.jpgHeat up the olive oil in a medium saute pan and saute the onion and celery until the onion is beginning to brown slightly (this adds more flavor to the chowder).  Remove from the heat and add to the thickened veloute.

Add the potatoes, corn, and jalapenos to the chowder.  Stir frequently to prevent the bottom from burning.  Let the chowder cook until the potatoes are completely done, around 30 minutes.  Turn the heat off and add the milk and the cilantro, stirring them in well.  Let it cool a little before serving.

Top with a couple of tbsp of sour cream and serve!

corn chowder chop 2.jpg


Recipe Notes: You can use a lot more cilantro and the soup will still be great.  I made one batch with a whole bunch of cilantro and though it was good, I wanted the emphasis to be on the corn so the next batch I used just 2 tbsp and thought the balance was much nicer.  You can also garnish with some additional cilantro if you like.  

The chowder is just as good without the evaporated milk (I made it both ways) but a true chowder has milk and I like the flavor it adds so I prefer the version with milk.  A word about the jalapenos- mine were very hot and 3 of them was almost too much but I later bought peppers from a different vendor at the market and they barely had any heat.  So my suggestion is to only use two if your pepper are especially hot this year and you don’t want the soup to be super spicy.

One more thing- if you don’t have fresh corn on hand and want to use canned or frozen, 5 cups might be an awkward amount (it’s the amount I got off of 8 ears of corn).  Don’t worry about it.  Use whatever quantity comes closest in canned or frozen without wasting any.  A little difference in quantity of corn one way or the other won’t ruin this chowder.

*Technically a veloute is made with beef or chicken stock but when making a vegetarian dish you always substitute meat stocks with vegetable stock so while it isn’t a true veloute, this is a vegetarian version of one.

This recipe is vegan if you make the roux with olive oil instead of butter and omit adding the evaporated milk.

Related article:

How to Make a Roux

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Tomato and Basil Strata Recipe

egg strata 2.jpgThe first time I tasted an egg strata was at my cousin Christa’s house in Wisconsin.  It’s a great dish to make for brunches because you can assemble it the night before and throw it in the oven 45 minutes before you want to eat it.  It’s filling and offers everything in one dish that you should ideally start your day with (protein, grain, and vegetable).

One thing you need to bear in mind when you make an egg strata is that you must let it sit at least for one hour before baking so that the toast becomes saturated with the egg and milk mixture.   

My recipe calls for a lot of eggs and if that makes you hesitant you need to consider that this recipe generously serves 8 people (or can be cut even smaller if you have other dishes to serve) which means that each serving has just 1 1/2 eggs in it.  That’s not too many eggs to eat for breakfast!

About the bread.  Most strata recipes call for good quality French bread or a brioche loaf.  I used a great local bread called “sesame white” which has good flavor and no gluey factor.  We usually use whole wheat bread and I would wholeheartedly suggest you use wheat if you have it.  However, I buy the sesame white to make croutons with (because they dry nice and light and not hard) and so this is what I had the first time I made it.  I liked it so much that I bought more sesame white.  Bread comes in all shapes and sizes so how much bread you’ll need to toast may vary a little from what I used.  Keep that in mind.  This is a regular sliced sandwich bread size. If you use a french bread the slices may be half the size of what I used.

Egg stratas lend themselves to lots of variations and I encourage you to play with the possibilities!

Tomato and Basil Strata

serves 8

Ingredients
8 slices of good quality bread
1 tbsp butter for greasing your baking dish
12 eggs
2 cups milk
10 large basil leaves (or one small bunch) julienned
1 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper
6 large tomatoes
2 cups grated jack cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Place the bread slices on baking sheets and toast them until lightly
toasted and dried out.  Be sure to turn them over so they get toasted on
both sides.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and milk together and then add the basil, salt, and pepper to it and beat a little more to mix well.

Slice the tomatoes in rounds (somewhere between 1/4″ and 3/8″ thick is good).

toast for strata 2.jpgGrease a 9×13″ baking dish with butter.  When the toast is ready layer
the bottom of the baking dish with them.  It was helpful with the shape
of my bread to break the slices up a bit to fit them in well.

making strata 2.jpgCover the toast with a layer of sliced tomatoes.  Make a second layer of
toast and beat the eggs again before
pouring evenly over the whole dish. Place a second layer of tomatoes on the top, cover the baking dish, and let it sit
for at least an hour.

Twenty minutes before it’s ready to be baked, turn your oven on to 350
degrees.  The strata will take 45 minutes to cook.  I don’t put
the grated cheese on the top until it’s been in for a half an hour. 
After it’s cooked for 40 minutes at 350 I put the broiler on and let the
cheese get bubbly and slightly browned, which in my oven takes about 5
minutes.

tomato layer 2.jpgThese are some of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen!  The first layer were all red ones.  I liked the mix a lot.

a corner of broiled cheese 2.jpg
Recipe Notes:  You can use whatever kind of cheese you like that melts well.  Jack is one of my very favorite cheeses for covering casseroles with but a gruyere would also be really nice.  My mom thought I should have used more basil but I didn’t want the herb flavor to overpower the flavor of the tomatoes which were at their peak of flavor.  I nearly always use a 2% milk but you can use whole milk or skim if you prefer.  I know some recipes even call for cream.  



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Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes

ricotta stuffed toms 2.jpgThis is a very simple dish to make.  I always make my own ricotta but you can very satisfactorily use store bought which makes this dish also fast to put together.  If you have the time though, I highly recommend trying homemade ricotta as it has a sweeter fresher flavor than store bought.

I use this ricotta blend for stuffing other things as well, including lasagna.  The secret ingredient is nutmeg.  My mother, who lived in Rome for two years when she was a kid, taught me to put nutmeg in ricotta and though it seems strange- it is delicious!  If you hate nutmeg, leave it out.   

ricotta for stuffing 2.jpgRicotta Stuffed Tomatoes
serves 9

Ingredients:

9 medium summer tomatoes (firm)
15 ounces ricotta
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg
12 big basil leaves, julienned
3/4 tsp salt
3 shakes nutmeg
15 grinds fresh pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the top of the tomatoes off and hollow them out being careful not to rip them up (you can see in the picture that I ripped a couple of mine).

In a big bowl mix all the remaining ingredients using a fork so that the egg gets broken and mixed in well.

Place the tomatoes in a pie dish and fill each one up with the ricotta mixture making sure to heap it up at the top a little.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then turn your oven broiler on and broil them until the tops turn golden (in my oven this is less than five minutes). 

ricotta stuffing 2.jpgThese make a great side dish or you can eat them as your main dish with a salad for a light dinner.  You can eat the leftovers for lunch.   

stuffed tomato with fork 2.jpg

Recipe notes:  Don’t use tomatoes that have already passed their peak and are soft because they’ll fall apart.  You can drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes before baking if you like.  I didn’t use it for myself because it really wasn’t necessary and I like that this dish is pretty light in the calorie department.  Olive oil would definitely add a bit more richness to the dish.   This recipe can easily be halved but I would still use one egg in the ricotta because it would be silly to waste a half and egg and though you can omit it all together, I like including an egg for extra protein and it lends more substance to the ricotta.
This recipe is Gluten Free

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Fresh Tomato Salsa Recipe

another macro salsa 2.jpgIf you don’t have fresh local tomatoes grown outside in the sunshine, don’t bother making this recipe.  I’m not being a tomato snob, I’m really not.  With recipes where you roast or cook tomatoes you can coax more flavor out of less than stellar fruits, but when making recipes with fresh tomatoes you need the very best. 

I learned to make this fresh tomato salsa from my friend Norman’s good friend Margie, about 19 years ago.   

Fresh Tomato Salsa

yields one big bowl of salsa

Ingredients:

6 ripe slicing tomatoes
1 small red onion
2 Serrano chilies
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

burnt skin 2.jpgMethod:

Cut the tomatoes width-wise, exposing the pockets of seeds, and over the sink or your compost squeeze the seeds out.  After removing the core, dice them into 1/2″ pieces, put in a large bowl. 

Dice the red onion fine, and add it to the bowl with the tomatoes.    

Roast the Serrano chilies by pushing onto a skewer (metal or wood, doesn’t matter) and hold over an open flame.  Turn the chilies around so all of the skin is charred.  Once the peppers are blackened and cooled enough not to give you a second degree burn from handling, rinse them in cold water, peeling the charred skin off.  Mince them into very fine bits and add them to the bowl.

Mince the cilantro very fine and add to the bowl with everything else.

Quarter the lime and squeeze it into the bowl.

Add the salt.

Now stir it up really well and eat it right away.

minced pepper 2.jpg

Recipe Notes:  I like it best eaten right away but Philip thinks it’s best after sitting for a few hours.  It will become watery at the  bottom of the bowl.  The heat of peppers varies, Serranos are generally a pretty hot pepper but I’ve bought some that were a lot more mild than I was expecting.  This is usually a pretty mild salsa.  If you would like more heat: add more peppers. 

Check out our other salsa recipe:
Pico de Gallo

This is a vegan recipe.
This is a gluten free recipe.
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Baked Garlic Eggplant Recipe

baked garlic eggplant 2.jpg

Like so many people I know I didn’t love eggplant when I was growing up.  I didn’t hate it but it was last on my list of vegetables to cook for myself when I left home because my mom didn’t know how to turn the dry flesh into succulent eating.  I know how to do this now and the secret is simple.

FAT.

The first brilliant eggplant experience I had was when I was twenty five years old.  A friend came to Philip’s birthday party for which we were making spaghetti and her gift was an eggplant.  I’m afraid we weren’t particularly enthusiastic.  She took one look at our faces and decided that an eggplant in our hands might be a terrible thing so she marched into our little city kitchen and taught us how to make eggplant that no one could dislike.  There was butter and baking involved.  True to her word, we became fans of everything eggplant from that moment on.

I don’t cook with butter very often.  I prefer olive oil.  Either way, the very best eggplant is always cooked with fat.  That’s my opinion and no one will budge me from it.

This way of cooking eggplant will yield a very soft somewhat buttery flesh (even though it’s made with olive oil) and renders the skin tender.  The garlic bakes until it’s golden, rich, and has a mild nutty flavor.  If you like a firm eggplant treatment* you won’t like this.  I think it’s sublime put on a slice of good bread with stone-ground brown spicy mustard and a thin slice of mild nutty cheese (such as Fontina).  It can also be used to make a great eggplant spread or added to a pasta sauce.


Baked Garlic Eggplant Recipe

Ingredients:
4 small round eggplants (or 2 large ones)
1 whole head of garlic (two if the heads are very small)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the tops off of all the eggplants and then cut them in half lengthwise.  Using a sharp knife cut slashes into the flesh diagonally- you want to cut down to about 1/2″ from the skin.  Don’t cut all the way through.  Then cut slashes diagonally in the opposite direction.  Put the halves onto a baking sheet.

Peel all the garlic cloves.  Leave small cloves whole but cut large ones in half lengthwise.  Divide them between all the eggplant halves evenly.  Stuff the garlic into the cuts in the eggplant. 

Drizzle the olive oil over the eggplant.  Use all of it.  Grind pepper onto the eggplant halves and sprinkle salt on them. 

Bake the eggplant for 40 minutes and then check it.  Baking times will depend on the size of your eggplants.  Even large ones should be done under an hour.  When the garlic and the top of the eggplants have turned golden and the flesh is soft when you press a fork into it, they’re done.

Recipe Notes:  You can cook eggplant faster in a hotter oven but you won’t get the melting quality of the flesh that way.  I love grilled eggplant but this recipe is about getting a succulence out of the eggplant that grilling (or roasting in a hotter oven) won’t achieve. 

*Really?  If anyone truly likes a firm eggplant treatment, may I suggest they hightail it to Aberfoyle to the local time-share restaurant on the hill where you can get a plate of salad with raw eggplant in it.  I happen to love the Scottish best of all people on earth but I have to say that they do not know the proper treatment of an eggplant.  What can you expect of a restaurant that thinks chicken soup is vegetarian?  But really, I love Abberfoyle.  Nothing could be more charming than the tiny farm store at the bottom of the hill with the surly people in it and the scary dog.  I’ve been twice and will go again!

Summer White Bean And Basil Salad Recipe

summer bean salad 2.jpgOne 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)
 

basil bean salad 2.jpg

Method:

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.

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