Mixed Bean Salad

This week I paged through my Jerusalem cookbook for some inspirations, and landed on this lovely yellow and green bean salad that includes lots of garden herbs and capers. It was delicious and would make a really great salad to bring to some kind of potluck event because in addition to being tasty and herbacious, it looks really good and is best served at room temp. 

My general go-to for green beans is to steam them, coat them in butter, salt and nutritional yeast, and eat. This was a bit fussier, which I found pleasant. My mom sat at the table and prepared the herbs and green beans while I chopped the peppers, dried the capers, and boiled the beans for the appropriate number of minutes before "refreshing" them in ice water. (My mom is also working on a puzzle, which you can see in the corner of the photo. These are good activities for someone who cannot put weight on one leg and is currently confined to my 600 square foot house due to stairs at each door!)

Bean salad along with open faced BLT on my tiny pieces of Teff sourdough toast!

I followed this recipe pretty closely, except the following: I did not want to turn on the oven, so rather than roast the red peppers I sauteed them on the stove top; I used my garden peppers, which were 2 banana peppers and 1 mini red pepper that was a bit spicy; I did not have green onions and instead dug up green onion too-big bulbs from the garden and chopped those up. :)

Serves 4

• 10 oz yellow beans, trimmed (if unavailable, double the green bean amt)
• 10 oz green beans, trimmed
• 2 red peppers cut into 1/4" strips
• 3 T olive oil, plus 1 tsp for the peppers
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 6 T capers, rinsed and patted dry
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 c tarragon, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 c chervil leaves, or a mix of dill and parsley (I had the latter)
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pan with plenty of water to a boil and add the yellow beans. After 1 minute add the green beans and cook another 4 minutes, until cooked through but still crunchy. Refresh under ice-cold water, drain, pat dry, and place in a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, toss the peppers in 1 tsp olive oil and saute on a cast iron skillet until tender, about 5 minutes. Add to the bowl with the cooked beans.

Heat the 3 T olive oil in the skillet, or a small saucepan. Add the garlic and cook for 20 seconds; add the capers and fry another 15 seconds. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and fry another 15 seconds. The garlic should have turned golden by now. (If, like me, you used a cast iron, these times are too short and the garlic is not yet golden. That took a lot longer.) Remove from the heat and pour contents over the beans. Toss and add the onions, herbs, lemon zest, a 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper. Serve, or keep refrigerated for up to a day. Bring back to room temp before serving.