Late Summer Green Salad

This salad is great for a dinner party as the flavours are wonderful plus it looks amazing.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 6  spring onions, trimmed
• 140  g  runner beans
• 3  slices  bread, cubed (olive if you can get it)
• 5  tablespoons olive oil
• 2 (10 g)  butter
• 2  medium courgettes
• 1  green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1  bunch basil leaves
• 85  g  Baby Spinach, washed and trimmed from stems

• dressing

• 1  large shallot, chopped
• 1  garlic clove, crushed
• 9  tablespoons olive oil
• 2  red peppers, 5mm dice
• 1  bay leaf
• 1  sprig thyme
• 1⁄4 teaspoon caster sugar

Directions

1. Dressing:
2. Fry the shallot and garlic in 4tbsp of the olive oil - do not let them colour. Add the peppers, bay leaf and thyme and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and the rest of the oil decant into a jug and leave to infuse until needed.
3. Salad:
4. Shred the spring onions and place in a bowl if iced water to curl them.
5. Slice the runner beans into long strips and cook the beans in salted water until just softened drain and cool.
6. Fry the bread in 4 tbsp of the oil until golden and crispy add a knob of butter and toss. Drain on kitchen paper and season well. (this can be done up to 2 hours in advance).
7. Using a Y peeler peel the courgette lengthways to make strips.
8. Heat the remaining olive oil and butter and stir fry the green peppers until just soft. Add the green beans and swirl empty into a bowl. and season.
9. Scatter the courgettes, onion, basil, baby spinach and bread over the veg. Spoon over enough dressing to moisten and serve the rest separately. Dress with shaved parmesan if desired.