Green Bean Salad with Tomato and Mozzarella - Yum!
If you are looking for a great summer side dish to serve with just about anything, I highly recommend you try this recipe.
My wife's sister served this salad to us over the weekend twice. Once with steak and the next night with grilled salmon. It was even better the second night.
She used Patricia Wells' wonderful cookbook, At Home In Provence, (a cookbook I now need to go and buy) but made a few changes of her own including substituting tomatoes and adding small pieces of fresh mozzarella cheese.
Tomato, Mozzarella and Green Bean Salad
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
For the Dressing
For the Salad
- ½ pound tomatoes
- sea salt
- 1 pound green beans tender
- 1 egg fresh mozzarella cheese cut into bite sized pieces
- 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro
Instructions
Prepare the Dressing
- Whisk together the vinegar and salt in a small bowl. Add the shallots and combine.
- Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking vigorously to combine.
- Taste and adjust seasoning with salt.
Prepare the Tomatoes
- If using a regular tomato, you want to drain all the liquid out of the tomatoes so place the cut up pieces into a fine-mesh sieve or colander and sprinkle with a little salt. Set them over a bowl to drain. Judy used the small but sweet grape tomatoes so she ignored this step and the salad was fine.
Blanch the Green Beans
- Bring a large pot of water to boil.
- While the water is coming to a boil, wash and trim the ends of the beans. Then cut up the beans into 1-inch lengths. Don't forget to get the ice-cold water bath ready to quickly stop the cooking process after the beans are blanched. Just fill up another bowl with water and ice.
- As soon as the water comes to a boil, add a couple of teaspoons of salt and then the beans. Bring back to a boil and cook until the beans are "crisp-tender". This should take about 5 minutes.
- Quickly drain the beans and place them into the ice cold water bath for a couple of minutes. Drain and dry them with a kitchen towel.
Dress the Salad
- Put the beans in a serving bowl, add the oil and vinegar dressing and stir everything together.
- Now's good time to taste and adjust seasoning.
- Add the drained tomatoes, mozzarella, and cilantro and toss until well mixed.
- Serve it up individually or family style in a big bowl.
Notes
Tomatoes - my sister-in-law used delicious, sweet tiny heirloom tomatoes. If you use a regular tomato, you'll need to core, seed, chop it. Patricia Wells says to peel the tomato too, but I'm not sure I would add that extra step to the process. Your choice.
Betsy @ Desserts Required
This salad looks delicious and soooo refreshing!! I love the tips you offer in the recipe!
G. Stephen Jones
Thanks Betsy, it's a great recipe.