Strawberry & Green Bean Salad

Recipe: Strawberry & Green Bean Salad

Strawberry & Green Bean Salad is a colourful and easy to assemble, flavourful summer time salad. The combination of strawberries and green beans seems like a strange combination but trust me the sweetness from the strawberries and the crunchy from the super fresh and tender green beans is absolutely amazing. Go on give it a try while you still get those super tender beans. Pair it with a fruity dressing of your choice. I went for a poppy seed lemon and raspberry flavoured vinaigrette.

What Is A Salad?

A salad is a cold or warm dish of raw and/or cooked vegetables mixed with meat, fish, fruits and served with a dressing. The dressing can vary from a simple drizzle of lemon juice over the salad to more flavourful ones. Dressings can be creamy or light watery type. Salads are served as an accompaniment to the main dish, as starters or some are served as main course.

My Introduction To A Variety Of Salads

Growing up salad at home was a mixture chopped of tomatoes, cucumber, carrot and lettuce leaves. That’s it. When in season red radish would be added. No dressing except for a sprinkle of salt and pepper. And that is what was served everyday for lunch. When I old enough to handle a peeler, helped my mum to peel the carrots and cucumber. Slowly progressed to a knife and that meant I made the salad, right from washing, peeling to chopping.

During my teens began to browse in cookery books especially Tarla Dalal and Hamlyn ones for more ideas to make the basic salad more interesting. Our family shop use to sell Hamlyn Cookery Books and I would spend hours oogling at the colourful photos. That’s where I would pick up ideas to make salad more interesting – adding corn, bell pepper, cheese, etc. That slowly progressed to making salads according to the recipes. Since then have not made the basic salad of my teen days.

Indian Cuisine And Salads

Indian Cuisine as per say has not been big or too innovative when it comes to salads as that is very much a western concept. Traditionally, the Indian Salad, Kachumbar consisting of tomato, cucumber and onion is what is commonly served everywhere. Who heard of just salads for a meal years ago? My grandma or mum definitely didn’t have salad as a meal. Modern times and now it is easier to find a variety of salads in most Indian Restaurants in India. But elsewhere the Indian Restaurants have only slices of cucumber, tomato, carrots and onion with wedges of lemon if you are lucky.

A Bit About Strawberry & Green Bean Salad

During my visits to London, I would go grocery shopping with my mum or sister in law. They have a Sainsbury near to their home and back then Sainsbury would have recipe cards at the check out counters which you pick for free. Basically, it was a form of advertising. What a brilliant idea as you would land up buying the ingredients from them. The recipe card had a ready made vinaigrette as the dressing which we picked up. Made the salad and everyone at home loved except for my dad. He wanted his traditional basic salad!

Sharing Strawberry & Green Bean Salad With Sunday Funday Group

Stacy’s theme for this Sunday is Salad Days. Can be salads as a side dish or as a main course. Summers tend to be pretty hot and humid in Magog. That’s when I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. And wholesome, filling salads become lunch for hubby and me. I had posted Strawberry & Green Bean Salad on 19/06/2012. The post needed a fresh look with better photos and write up. So, here is an updated version of the delicious, crunchy and flavourful salad.

Updated the post on 25/08/2024

Check Out Some Salad Recipes By Members Of Sunday Funday

• BBQ Chicken Ranch Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Caprese Prosciutto Salad from Food Lust People Love
• Mexican Street Corn Salad from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Roasted Beet & Blackberry Salad from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Roasted Beet Salad with Horseradish Dressing from Palatable Pastime
• Strawberry & Green Bean Salad from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Super Delicious Keto Salad from Sneha’s Recipe
• Yam Nuea Yang (Spicy Thai Beef Salad) from Culinary Cam

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Ingredients Required For Strawberry & Green Bean Salad With Fruity Poppy Seed Dressing

Strawberries

Fresh ripe strawberries. Need about 170g. Wash and dry the strawberries on a paper towel or kitchen cloth. Trim off the top part of the strawberries and then cut them into halves lengthwise.

Green Beans

Choose fresh green beans that are slim and tender. We will be blanching the beans in salted water. I allowed them to blanch for 3 minutes and after that transferred them to cold water with ice cubes to stop the cooking process. The beans should be crunchy and not over cooked. Trim the ends of each bean. You can choose the beans whole or cut them into halves. I prefer the latter as it is easier to pick them with a fork when enjoying the salad.

Salad Leaves

Any salad leaves of your choice. I sometimes use mixed salad leaves or arugula.

Baby Spinach

I like adding baby spinach to the salad. If you don’t have baby spinach, cut the normal leaves into thick strips.

Feta

Salty Feta cheese compliments the sweetness from the strawberries and the earthy flavour of green beans. If you don’t like feta then go for mozzarella or halloumi cheese.

Almonds

Chopped roasted almonds or almond slivers. Use whatever you have at hand. I had some almond slivers which I used.

Olive Oil

Have you noticed how expensive olive oil has become? I’m now so careful when I use it. I still prefer olive oil when it comes to salad dressings, till I find a suitable alternate.

Vinegar

I had bought some raspberry vinegar from the Farmers Market. It adds a subtle fruity flavour to the dressing. I love it. If you don’t have any fruity vinegar by all means use any good quality vinegar. Please don’t use vinegar substitute as it is just too acidic.

Poppy Seeds

Use any poppy seeds of your choice, white, blue or black. If you don’t get poppy seeds then opt for sesame seeds. I know they don’t taste the same but they both add texture and flavour to the salad.

Balsamic Glaze

I have some balsamic glaze that has a slightly sweetish taste. Again bought that at a Farmers Market. I used that instead of honey or maple syrup. Balsamic Glaze pairs so well with strawberries.

Lemon Zest

For the nice summery floral tangy flavour. This is an optional ingredient.

Lemon Juice

Add only if you find the vinegar is not too sour. I added some for that extra zingy taste.

Salt

Add some to the dressing according to your taste.

Pepper

Freshly cracked pepper is the best. Add according to your taste to the dressing.