French Style Green Beans Salad

This green beans salad is quick and easy to make. It is much more than the sum of its part. Try it and it will be on your kitchen table regularly from then on. 

Every year, I try and grow some beans and peas in my garden. This year I’ve string beans and runner beans. I used the runner beans for thie green beans salad but the string beans. mange-touts or sugar snaps would be just as good in it. 

This green beans salad works so well partly because warm salads are unusual. In this instance, warm potatoes, slightly melted blue cheese and pickled shallots really catch you in the umami. For the cheese, I used the creamiest of the blues, the mighty St Agur. 

Between the blue cheese, the shallots and the celery leaves this salad is complex but has a French je ne sais quoi which will please and satisfy. 

Ingredients 

• 4 baby potatoes
• One generous handful of of green beans
• A few cherry tomatoes
• A small portion of lardons
• One shallot
• 1 table spoon of crumbled blue cheese
• One handful of celery leaves
• Juice of half a lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Method

• Shave the shallot and steep it the lemon juice. Let it pickle for at least 30 minutes.
• Boil the potatoes.
• In a small pan, fry the lardons gently with the beans.
• Add the tomatoes to the pan and let them fry for no longer than 30 seconds as you don’t want them to go mushy.
• Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and place them on the plate.
• Smash them down with a spoon and scoop a bit of cheese on top of each potato and let it melt slowly against the heat of the potatoes. 
• Plate the beans, lardons and tomatoes. 
• Add the celery leaves and place the pickled shallot on top.
• Sprinkle salt and pepper.
• Drizzle with olive oil.