String Bean Salad

Put the Kids to Bed and Enjoy!

I find it extremely difficult to taste, chew and enjoy food when eating with our girls.  One wants to sit on my lap, the other spills her drink, the one on my lap wants to be fed like she is 18 months…It can get crazy at meal time.  But because of the time crunch, it usually makes the most sense to all eat together.

This past Sunday I bought a bunch of fresh vegetables and chicken from a local farm.  I knew what I wanted dinner to taste like and I had been thinking about it all day. When 6:15 rolled around and we had not even put the BBQ on yet, I said to Terry, “I am going to give the girls leftovers and you start the grill.  Let’s eat alone tonight.” 

Our Sunday night dinner alone was awesome and so was my string bean salad!

 Ingredients:  4 big handfuls of fresh string beans, 3 beets, ½ pineapple, ½ of a small yellow onion, 5 table spoons of olive oil, 8 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

Tools:  Knife, peeler, pot, large deep pan, a few bowls and one large bowl to serve the salad in

Preparation:

 Beets

·     Cut ends off of beets, peel and place in a pot.  Add water to the pot until beets are covered and put stove on medium high.  Let beets boil until they are soft (you can check beets softness by testing with a knife – if the knife goes through easy, they are ready).  Place beets in a separate container with a few tablespoons of the beet juice from the pot.  Do not cover and let them cool.  Save the juice from the pot in another container and use it for making smoothies. 

String beans

·     Rinse string beans.  Cut the ends off and place them in a large deep pan.  Add water to the pan until the string beans are just covered.  Put stove on medium high and let string beans cook for about 3-4 minutes.  Take off the stove, drain string beans and then place them in a bowl of cold water with ice cubes (7-10 cubes).  Let sit for 2-3 minutes drain well and place in a large serving bowl.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil, a small pinch of salt and a sprinkle of pepper and toss together.

Pineapple

·     Cut pineapple into round slices average thickness and place on the grill.  The grilling time will depend on the heat.  I had the heat on low and grilled the pineapple for about 5 minutes on each side.  Check occasional so you do not over cook.  You want them slightly chard.

Onion:

·     Peel and cut onion into tiny square pieces (1/2” by ½” or smaller).  Place in pot with one tablespoon of olive oil and cook on medium low for about 6 minutes (or until onion is beginning to become translucent) stirring occasionally. Lower the heat of the stove to low and add 8 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and remaining 2 tablespoon of olive oil and cook for 1 minute on low heat stirring the whole time then transfers onions and sauce into the bowl of string beans.

Cut up the beets and pineapple and add them to the serving bowl with the string beans, add a tablespoon of beet juice and one more sprinkle of pepper.  Toss together and enjoy.

This salad sounds more labor intensive than it really is.  I just like to take everyone step by step because I know some of my readers are new cooks.  You can rinse, cut and cook the beets and string beans ahead of time and place in the refrigerator. I recommend doing the sauce right before you serve. But you can cut the onion ahead of time. I also enjoyed the pineapple right off the grill into the salad.

I hope you enjoy this salad as much as I did!

Love deeply and eat mindfully,

Kim Gilroy