Ontario String Bean Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette and Fresh Basil

"What did one bean say to the other bean? 'How you bean doin'?'" Ha!

Oh, vegetable humour! I'm sure the person who came up with this one was out in their sunny garden for a bit too long!!
This morning I went for a walk and thought about my recipe for today... It is quite hard trying to figure out what to make when you have a bushel full of fresh veggies from the garden! Vegetable gardens are fantastic! I've never work so much on a garden before this year and felt so rewarded! Tilling and raking the soil in the early spring, planning where everything should go, measuring out your rows, planting and weeding, weeding, weeding. Watching a little seed grow into a vegetable producing plant is amazing and whats even more amazing, is picking the vegetables and eating them! Yum! It might sound simple to some, but for a city kid like myself, it truly is magic! This year my Mum planted two rows of string beans: green, yellow and purple. They must like it up at our land, because they are producing an absolute tonne of beans! What do to with all these beans?! Well, I absolutely adore boiled beans finished with butter and salt, but I wanted to do something a bit more summery for you. So, I have thought of a salad. Growing up, we never had string bean salads. In fact, I do believe the first salad I made that had green beans was the classic French 'Salade Nicoise,' that I made in Chef school. Since then, I have made quite a few salads with string beans, but I thought it would be fun to make up something different this morning! I hope you like it!

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Ontario String Bean Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette and Fresh Basil
(serves 4)

a couple hand fulls of string beans (any colour)
some cherry tomatoes, halved
slices of red onion
fresh basil, torn
sea salt
fresh ground pepper

Lemon vinaigrette:

1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 cup lighter tasting oil (I used safflower oil)
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp sugar or honey
sea salt, a pinch

.whisk all vinaigrette ingredients together or place in a jar with a tightly fitted lid and shake
.either place all salad ingredients in a bowl and toss with dressing, or arrange on a plate and drizzle vinaigrette, enjoy!

You can make this vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, but I prefer a lighter tasty oil to allow the lemony goodness to shine through! This salad is super light and refreshing, perfect for a summer BBQ! Actually, I think I'm going to marinade some pork chops in chopped garlic and a touch of this vinaigrette for dinner tonight... I hope Kev feels like getting out there and BBQin' later! (Now this is completely off topic, but aren't Arcade Fire so good?! I've been rockin' out to their first album this morning while making my salad! Good times!)