Summer Salads

There is a whole world of salads out there in food land for us to choose from. Since it’s summer I like to make salads as a main dish once and a while. I have had a bean salad idea brewing in my mind for the last three days and today I put it into a recipe for myself and my readers. When I was starting out in the cooking business as a young cook in the US Coast Guard I had to make many a dish that I didn’t like.

Three bean salad was one of those. It didn’t help that all the beans were canned. I didn’t like it until just a couple years ago when I tried one that was pretty good, and that got me thinking of ways to make my own version of this common salad. I set out to make it uncommon though, and today I whipped up what’s sure to be a classic(Three Bean Salad with Sweet Corn) for you all to try.

Hopefully you all are staying cool enough to go into your kitchen and make something quick and healthy from scratch like I do here at the Fast and Furious Test Kitchen. It’s important to have dishes like this one that you make once and can eat two or three times over the course of four to five days.

This isn’t just your every day three bean salad. I sought to make it healthy, quick and delicious while being different too. I decided  to use fresh green beans, and edamame to make it non-conforming. Then I added fresh basil for another twist. I thought about using garlic infused olive oil, but will try adding that some other day to see if it adds or detracts from the overall taste.

Usually I would add hot peppers to something like this but I wanted a baseline recipe first to see how it tasted before tweaking it much. After all one could add hot sauce or peppers at the table and it would still get the job done. Since we are in the third day of a heat wave it’s a great time to make a refrigerated salad that can have the hot stuff added later on the whim of the person eating it. So give this one a try, and tweak it if you want. Please leave feedback so I can gauge how popular this recipe is. Stay cool until we meet again and look for my Facebook posts from Alaska starting July 25th.

Three Bean Salad with Fresh Corn

1 1/2 cup green beans, fresh, frozen or canned

1 can of kidney beans rinsed and drained

1/2 cup ready to eat edamame beans, or frozen

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

2 cups fresh cooked corn off the cob

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1/3 cup fresh basil sliced thin or left whole

1/4 to 1/2 thin sliced red onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons natural apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 avocado for garnish

1 fresh tomato for garnish

If using frozen edamame heat 4-5 cups water to boiling and cook for 3 minutes. If using frozen or fresh green beans cook with edamame. Drain and cool. Add all ingredients except oil, vinegar and salt in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and stir it in. Add oil and vinegar and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more and serve with sliced tomatoes or avocados for garnish.