Ottolenghi Green Bean Salad
This is a delicious green salad with a rich, hearty flavour. I have modified Ottolenghi’s version slightly to make less steps.
- 250 g. green beans
- 250 g. snap or snow peas
- 250 g. peas (fresh or frozen)
- 2 tsp. coriander seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle (or just dried coriander)
- 1 tsp. mustard seeds
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp. nigella seeds (I substituted fennel seeds; you could also use caraway)
- 1/2 white or red onion, finely chopped
- 1 mild fresh chili, deseeded and diced, or a jalapeno
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp chopped tarragon, or ~ 1 tsp. dried
- 30 g. baby chard leaves (optional)
- coarse sea salt, to taste
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Blanch the green beans for 5 minutes, then immediately lift them out of the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same pot, blanch the snow peas for 2 minutes, remove and set aside. Finally, blanch the peas for 30 seconds, remove and set aside. Run all the vegetables under cold water to stop the cooking process, and then drain.
Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and add coriander and mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to pop like popcorn, pour the contents over the vegetables.
Ottolenghi uses the onions, garlic, and chilli raw, but I put them in the pan and sauted a few minutes to take the edge off. Either way, dump them onto the vegetables along with the nigella, lemon zest, and tarragon. Season with salt to taste.
Just before serving, gently fold in the chard leaves, if using (I didn’t).