Bean & avocado salad with lime dressing
One complaint from vego eaters at Christmas is that there isn’t enough planty protein on the table, or that they don’t feel satisfied at the end of the meal. This salad is full of the benefits of beans, and you can use whatever beans you have in the pantry, or cook from scratch using dried beans - for broad beans, a bag of frozen broadies will do just fine (just follow those cooking instructions instead). Avocado and extra virgin olive oil provide natural sources of fat, which will help to give that satiety factor, and if you do have vegans at the table, you can use whichever hard planty cheese, or you can leave that off, too.
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Ingredients
- 300 g green beans topped but not tailed
- 100 g sugar snap peas
- 150 g broad bean pods yielding about 50g beans
- 400 g tin black beans or red kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 avo cubed and spritzed with lime juice
- ½ bunch of dill fronds picked
- 1 handful of mint leaves roughly chopped
- 100 g manchego cheese finely grated
Zippy dressing (makes 265ml)
- ½ cup 125ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 French shallot finely diced
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt flakes
Instructions
- Slice the green beans and sugar snap peas in half lengthways along the seams.
- Blanch the green beans by adding them to a large saucepan of salted boiling water.
- Cook for 3 minutes exactly, then plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process and keep the colour bright.
- In the same pan, blanch the sugar snap peas and broad beans for 2 minutes, then plunge into cold water.
- When cooled, drain off all the water from the beans and sugar snap peas. Pop them into a decent-sized mixing bowl.
- Put the black beans in another bowl. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together, season very generously with freshly cracked black pepper. Pour the dressing over the beans to let the flavours absorb.
- When ready to serve, toss the coriander leaves, dill and mint through the black beans, then pile over the mixed fresh beans.
- Grate the cheese over the top, using a fine grater for puffy delicious clouds, then serve.
