Potato and green beans salad with black olives

Green beans are one of the delights of summer. As a child I used to pick whole buckets of them from the field. My mum would cook them and then freeze them for the winter.. we just had so many of them! Green beans or “fagiolini” were one of the delights of summer…after ice cream of course!

At the moment I am only making light recipes and having mainly fruit as a dessert. The recipe I am sharing today is a classic green beans and potato salad which is very popular in Italy at summertime. If you want the beans to retain their green colour, don’t over cook them and then place them immediately in a bowl with cold water. This will stop the cooking process and let them retain their nice bright green colour.

As always, in order to bring a salad to the next level the secret always lies in the dressing: mix two parts of oil with 1 part of vinegar or lemon and a pinch of salt. No need to buy “fake” ready made dressings which often have a chemical and unpleasant aftertaste.

And if you are thinking of making a meal out of this? Add hard boiled eggs, tuna, beans, cheese (like feta) or chicken pieces.. anything you fancy and you will have a healthy and light meal.

• Prep Time : 20 minutes
• Cook Time : 30 minutes
• Yield : 4

Ingredients

• potatoes – 400 g or 3 medium potatoes
• green beans – 400 g – 2+ 2/3 cup
• black olives – handful
• extra virgin olive oil – 3 tbsp
• lemon – 1
• finely chopped parsley – 1 tbsp
• garlic – 1/2 clove
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Peel the potatoes, place them in a pan and cover them with salty cold water. Bring to the boil and cook them for 30 minutes until soft.

In another pan bring some water to the boil, add the trimmed beans and cook them for about 3 minutes. Drain them and run them under the tap with cold water or place them in a bowl with cold water to stop the cooking process. In this way they will be of a nice green colour. Don’t overcook them, they are much tastier if they are a bit crunchy.

Drain the potatoes, let them cool down and slice them.

Put the beans, the potatoes and the black olives in a bowl.

Make the dressing: mix 3 tbsp of olive oil with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. If you like you can replace the lemon juice with vinegar. Add the parsley and the crushed garlic clove. Mix well.

Pour the dressing on the salad, grind some pepper on it, mix well and serve.

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