Green Bean Salad

This week's chef for the Food Network Cooking Chef's Challenge is Aida Mollenkamp. Since I was away a bit last week, I didn't have much time to peruse her recipes and so I had to pick one quickly, using recipes I had on hand because I knew I wouldn't be able to go grocery shopping until after I had made the recipe. I settled on Simple Green Bean Salad, because as I mentioned yesterday, I'm at a point where I'm looking for new ways to serve beans from the garden. I had to make a number of changes to the salad, so I'm not sure if it is really fair for me to make a review of the recipe, but I will say that what I came up with tasted delicious.

Simple Green Bean Salad
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 T EVOO
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lime zest (I didn't have any lemons so I had to use bottled juice and a lime for the zest)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered.
Salt
Pepper
2 tsp dried parsley

1. Bring a medium pot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat. Once water boils, add green beans until cooked but still firm, about 4 minutes. You will notice my beans are purple. The beans we grew are purple and turn green when they are cooked. They are tasty tasty.

2. Prepare a water bath by filling a bowl halfway with ice water. Place beans ice water bath until cool. Drain and shake off excess water.

3. In a medium bowl, mix olive oil, juice, zest, and salt and pepper.

4. Add green beans, tomatoes and parsley, and mix well; taste, adjust seasoning as needed. Salad can be served immediately though flavor improves as it sits.

We both loved this salad. The fabulous dude thought it would be good with slivered almonds in it. I agree with him but I also think it would be tasty with shallots and black olives, as the original recipe suggested. I'm completely content with my decision to omit the anchovies. :D