Fresh Summertime Vegetable Salad

Submitted by Dreamer in Ontario

"With summer here salads just seem to be what I crave with my meals. This is a colourful salad that can be prepared ahead of time using mainly ingredients that are locally available and be ready and waiting when you get home, or take it along for as part of a picnic. Try to use fresh tarragon. It has far more flavour than dried. The tomatoes to use are those wonderful large slicing tomatoes that are available in the summer."

 

• Ready In: 18mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 1 lb French haricots vert, trimmed and halved
• 1⁄2 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1⁄2 cup radish, sliced
• 1⁄2 cup red onion, thinly sliced then halved
• 2 large fresh tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1⁄4 cup walnuts, chopped

• Dressing

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 -2 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 -2 garlic clove, minced
• salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

directions

1. Steam the Haricots verts beans until tender crisp (about 3 min).
2. Drain, run under cold water to stop cooking and drain again.
3. In a large bowl, combine the vegetables and feta cheese.
4. Prepare dressing by whisking together all ingredients.
5. Pour dressing over salad and mix well.
6. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and serve.

Reviews

[Marla Swoffer]

Unique and flavorful salad! Made for Craze-E Contest 2009. I made it exactly as directed...except I could only find frozen French haricots verts in our market--I used the microwave to defrost/steam them and then rinsed with cold water, as directed. The very fact that it still tasted so fresh and yummy with frozen beans proves it's worthy of five stars.

 

[Bergy]

4 star. This salad was enjoyable and colorful. I have not had a lot of Oil dressing for the past few months so it may not be fair but I felt that the amount of oil to the other dressing ingredients was a bit too much. I thought the garlic added to the flavor. I mixed the dressing in early AM because I was using dried taragon and wanted it to blend - it was fine but I would recommend, as the recipe states, to use fresh. I didn't think that the beans added a great deal to the over all flavor of salad. The feta & walnuts were a nice addition. I definately enjoyed the salad and wish the chef luck in the competition.

 

[Susie D]

This had so much going for it and was a big hit here. With a few adjustments I will be making this again & again. While steaming the green beans I added slivered carrots. I also added tiny cauilflower florets. I made the dressing according to the recipe & let the salad marinate for several hours. When checked I thought the dressing needed more acidity so added cider vinegar as well as more salt and pepper. The first night I served it as a side salad. The next day I spooned it over wedges of lettuce & added dressing. I ended up spooning out the last of the tomatoes & used the rest of the salad as a relish alongside sandwiches. The walnuts in this are divine and add an unexpected earthiness.

 

[Zurie]

Made for the Craze-E Contest 2009. This salad was perfectly pleasant and tasty, except that (for a contest recipe) there could have been a little more creativity and flair, which would have upped the stars: that "wow" factor was missing! It was a competent but fairly ordinary salad; however, we loved the walnuts and the tarragon in here. It's midwinter where I am, and at least I could easily get all the ingredients, which I appreciated! I did not use any substitutions, unless you count the fact that I bought those fine "baby" green beans (lovely for salad). I added a touch more sugar in the dressing, and fresh tarragon was but a dream ... I used dried. Thanks, chef, for a very nice salad! Scored according to Zaar's original 3-star description: "We liked it!"

 

[Chef1MOM-Connie]

Made for CrazE contest. I made thos for a luncheon Wednesday with a group of teacher friends. They LOved IT as did I. I really enjoyed the flavor of the dressing. I did use green beans fresh from the garden as opposed to harcots. It was my 2nd time making a dressing from scratch beside the vinegar and oil combos. Thank you. Will make often!