When we were kids, Molly loved canned green beans. She would request them for every birthday dinner. But also, because it was a vegetable one of us kids actually loved, my mom would serve them frequently. Which, I understand – a vegetable that will make at least one kid happy is great to serve with dinner. But I really did not enjoy them. I think it was more a texture issue than a taste issue, but I never figured that out and articulated it when I was six years old. So, I thought I just hated green beans. Until I tried them fresh! And not from a can! And I was shocked how much I really enjoyed them. Ever since then, I have been up in arms about canned green beans. They’re the worst canned vegetable. Canned corn doesn’t suffer the same fate. Canned tomatoes are incredibly useful. Canned beans are a staple. But green beans do not deserve to see the inside of a can!!

All this is just to say: this salad embraces the proper texture of green beans. They’re blanched to retain their crunchiness, and then added in with cucumbers, nuts, roasted chickpeas, and a light, zingy dressing. This salad is a crunchy texture bonanza, so if you like that, then you’ll love this salad. On top of that, I appreciate any salad that keeps it interesting and isn’t lettuce based. This is one of those salads that just makes me a bit more excited for it than a regular salad!

As usual, this recipes comes with a lot of flexibility!

I used pistachios, but you could sub out whatever nut you want – I think some roasted cashews would probably also be great. You don’t need to include the chickpeas if you don’t want. This could be a really good side salad if you just kept it at beans, cucumbers, and dressing – you could pair it with whatever your main protein is. But adding in the nuts and chickpeas rounds it out a bit. You could salt and dry out your cucumbers if you want, which would probably add to the crunchiness and help it last longer in the fridge, if you want leftovers.

For the dressing, you can whisk it by hand, but I found that using an electric whisk really helped fully emulsify the dressing, and it didn’t separate. You could also probably get more creative with adding spices to the dressing, but I kept it simple with a light vinaigrette.

So now, despite me explaining all the ways you can ignore the recipe and freestyle this to your tastes, here’s the recipe!

Green Bean and Cucumber Salad

Author: Audrey
Array: Array
Total Time: 0 hours

Ingredients

For the salad:

1 12 oz bag of fresh green beans
1 cucumber
1/2–3/4 cup roasted pistachios (or substitute another nut of your choice)
1 can chickpeas
a drizzle of olive oil, and a pinch of salt

For the dressing:

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While it’s preheating, drain and rinse your chickpeas, and pat dry with a paper towel. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and drizzle with olive and salt (feel free to add more seasonings if you’d like). Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how crispy you would like them. Take out of them oven and let cool.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. While that’s happening, cut your green beans into roughly 1 inch pieces. Then, blanche your green beans by putting your green beans in the boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Quickly remove them and immediately place them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Once they’re cooled, take out and pat dry, and add to another bowl.

Chop up your cucumber into bite sized pieces. You can salt them and let them sit for 10 minutes to extract some of their moisture, and then path them dry. Then, add the cucumber to the bowl of green beans with the pistachios and the chickpeas.

Prepare your dressing by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisking until it’s emulsified. This is where the electric whisk comes in handy.

Drizzle dressing over the bowl of ingredients, and then toss to coat everything. Serve and enjoy!

This can be kept in the fridge for a day or two, but the chickpeas and nuts may lose some of their crunch.