My furlough has been extended into September, so this column continues as well. It’s a good thing, because I have much to say about squash. Plus, I’ve barely tapped my pantry because I’ve been so busy talking about what to do with your summer produce. And yet there’s so many summer vegetables to talk about!
Take for instance green beans, which have been coming in the CSA the past two weeks. I was on the hunt for something different, and last week I found this recipe in “River Cottage Veg Every Day!” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall that calls for both zucchini and green beans. It turns out that he is a huge celebrity chef in England, and River Cottage is his beautiful garden, restaurant and grounds that people visit, dine and even get married in, at least in the “before” times.
Of course, I didn’t know any of this when someone posted this cookbook to Buy Nothing a few few years back. I was just excited for a new vegetarian cookbook. And yes, as I write this I feel like such an ignorant American.
I also didn’t realize until I had eaten my salad, and enjoyed every bite, that it’s the cover photo to the book. I think it has a lot to do with my very heavy hand when it came to the tahini dressing. It is, Hugh writes, the type of dressing that Yotam Ottolenghi, the Israeli-born London chef, does so well.
Frying the zucchini does take a bit of time, and yes, with the blanching of the green beans, you end up with a pile of dishes. But this salad is so tasty I definitely think it’s worth it. Don’t fret if you don’t have salad greens. This dish is so hearty it will work without them.
Tahini-dressed zucchini and green bean salad(Adapted, ever-so-slightly, from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “River Cottage Veg Every Day!”)
For the tahini dressing
½ garlic clove, crushed with a little kosher salt
2 Tablespoons tahini (stir the jar well first)
Finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
½ teaspoon honey
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
For the salad
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 pound of zucchini, sliced into eighth-inch rounds
Juice of ½ lemon
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 cup of green beans, trimmed
4 good handfuls of salad leaves
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful of mint, finely shredded (optional)
Directions
To make the tahini dressing, put the crushed garlic into a small bowl with the tahini, lemon zest and juice, honey and a grind of black pepper, and stir together well. The dressing may thicken and go grainy or pasty, but don’t worry. Just thin it down by whisking in a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get a creamy, trickling consistency. Finally, gently stir in the olive oil. Taste and add a little more salt and pepper if needed. The dressing is now ready to use.
For the salad, heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a fairly high heat and cook the zucchini slices in batches, tossing them occasionally, for a few minutes until tender and browned on both sides, transferring them to a bowl once cooked.
When the zucchini are all cooked, season generously with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and chili and toss together well.
Bring a pan of salted water to boil. Tip in the green beans, return to boil and blanch for 1 minute. Drain, then dunk in cold water to refresh. Drain again, pat dry with a clean dish towel and toss the beans with the zucchini.
To assemble the salad, spread the salad leaves in a large shallow serving bowl and scatter over the dressed zucchini and beans, tomatoes and shredded mint, if using. Trickle the tahini dressing generously over the whole lot and serve.
Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She's been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. She was furloughed from Smith for the summer and is using the time to work on her first cookbook. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.
September 05, 2020 at 11:43PM
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There Is A Season: Zucchini, green beans pair for zesty summer salad - GazetteNET
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