Summer Bean Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing

Summer Bean Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing

Summer is the perfect time for cold vegetable salads as so many wonderful ingredients are in season, readily available and inexpensive. I could eat green beans everyday, every which way. Just one cup of green beans provides 122% of your daily vitamin K requirements - builds those strong bones! This recipe has a light but creamy dressing made with a small amount of sour cream, fresh lemon juice and mustard. I made a few changes and additions, see notes. The dressing was so tasty, I plan to use it on regular salads. You could make many additions or substitutions but my favorite ingredient was definitely the sugar snap peas. Make sure to dry the beans before you place in the salad or it will be runny.

origin - Tyler Florence, 'Eat This Book'
difficulty - easy

1 pound mixed summer beans, such as sugar snap peas, haricots verts or green beans, yellow wax beans or runner beans - stems trimmed.
1-2 shallots finely chopped
1/2 cup walnut pieces - I used toasted pecans
1 handful fresh flat leaf parsley chopped - I used arugula
1 cup grape tomatoes cut in half
5 strips bacon cooked and chopped
1 tbsp grainy mustard *I combined dijon with spicy mustard and increased slightly
1 tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp sugar *add more after you taste
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream *I used sour cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add all of the beans and cook until crisp ttender - 3-5 minutes (I added the sugar snap peas half way through as I don't like them cooked as much)
Drain, transfer to a bowl of salted ice water to stop the cooking and drain well. Make sure the beans are well dryed - use a paper towel if necessary. I cut the beans in thirds and the peas in half. Transfer to large mixing bowl and toss with the shallots, walnuts (or pecans) and parsley (or arugula), and tomatoes.

In a jar, combine the mustard, water, sugar, lemon juice, oil, creme fraiche/sour cream, salt and pepper. Put on cap and shake vigorously to emulsify (or just whisk together in bowl). Just before you serve the salad, pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to coat. Garnish with bacon.