Until 3:30 pm yesterday, I had had a colander of yellow string beans sitting on my counter since Tuesday evening. Every time I walked into the kitchen, I'd look at them and send them a little unspoken promise that soon I'd turn them into something wonderful. Yesterday afternoon, I decided that they'd been patient long enough. I fired up a pot of water and gave them a quick blanch. I ran them under cool water to stop the cooking and returned them to their colander home, but this time only long enough to run to my local Trader Joe's in order to pick up a few things for the salad I was imagining.
At TJ's, I grabbed a container of perlini (the tiny ones) mozzarella balls, some fresh basil and a couple of ears of corn. I brought it all home, pulled out a few ingredients I already had, did a little chopping and threw everything together. When it was all done, it tasted like I had captured summer.
photo by Marisa McClellan
1 pound of blanched string beans (yellow or green will work)
1 large tomato (get a good heirloom one if you can), chopped into chunks
1 english cucumber, cut into half moons
1 sweet onion, roughly diced
2 ears of corn, steamed and cut from the cobs
a big handful of basil, cut into ribbons
1 container perlini mozzarella (you could get one nice sized ball and cube it up if you can't find the perlini)
the juice of one lemon
three glugs of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Mix everything up in a large bowl. Give it a taste and adjust to your liking. Feel free to add or omit veggies. Slices of raw zucchini or chopped fresh spinach would also be good. You could serve this over a grain (like quinoa or barley) or throw in some pasta for a total meal.
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