Once upon a time I went to the Farmer’s Market and came home with a grocery bag FILLED with green and wax beans. I came home, washed those babies, blanched those babies, and made a delicious vinaigrette to toss them in to make them super happy. I thought that was enough, but no, the beans wanted more. They were already perfect but they insisted they were just too beautiful to leave with ONLY a vinaigrette. I just wanted to make the beans happy, so I gave them some feta cheese and raisins and they were elated. The beans lived happily ever after for only a few minutes until they were gobbled up by the evil witch.
Ok that was true until the evil witch part because we all know I’m no witch! 😉 And well, beans don’t talk so I guess the rest isn’t true either. Ok, I totally made the whole thing up but hey, it sounded like a good story, right? Of course it was a good story, because we all love a cute fairy tale! Maybe I should have come up with something clever about Jack and the Bean Stalk but that seemed way to obvious and these beans are far too tasty for a giant who merely stuffs food in his mouth and swallows without even chewing. At least I think that’s how giants eat but who knows, I’m only 5 feet tall so clearly I know nothing about them.
Now that we have all of that fairy tale crap I just made up out of the way let’s just talk about how delicious blanched green beans are. When I was younger I thought I hated green beans because the only green beans I had ever seen were canned. I have vivid memories of seeing ugly canned green beans being served in the school cafeteria, and thinking who would eat those? YUCK! Canned green beans are all puffy and water logged and well… I hate them. I prefer my veggies on the crunchier side so generally if I’m making green beans I blanch them. Blanching is just a fancy word for submerging into boiling water for just a few minutes, then quickly submerging into cold water to stop the cooking process. No soggy beans here!
Please excuse the vinaigrette dripping off the side of my bowl. You see, I thought it would be a good idea to pick green beans out and eat them while I was taking pictures. Obviously it wasn’t. Photography fail! Just an FYI, yes this is a cold salad. The feta and raisins are optional but I highly recommend them!
