Refreshing Cucumber Green Bean Salad
When you have an abundance of fresh green beans and cucumbers from your garden, make this salad on repeat. It’s a delicious side to go along with nearly any dinner. It’s a salad that’s cool and refreshing and makes you feel light and healthy. You honestly would never notice that it has no oil in it (besides just a teaspoon of sesame oil for flavor).
I’ve only recently discovered that green beans are underrated. With a yummy dressing like this, or roasted with a little olive oil and salt, they are so yummy! Buy some fresh green beans next time you grocery shop, and roast some or make this salad.
Green beans are an amazing source of fiber, folate, potassium, and are helpful in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. They are also really inexpensive and easy to grow.
Make summer the season of tons of salads and side dishes. It’s so easy to eat vegetables when you make lots of yummy sides like this! Check out my 15 Potluck Dishes post for even more vegetable-heavy recipes.
Refreshing Cucumber Green Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz fresh green beans (about two large handfuls)
- 1 long English cucumber (or two small regular ones)
- 1 TBSP soy sauce or miso paste
- 2 TBSP rice vinegar
- 1 TBSP maple syrup
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp chili paste (like sambal oelek), optional
- 1 TBSP sesame seeds
- 1 cup shelled edamame (optional, but a lovely addition)
Instructions
- Blanch the green beans by putting them in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Cut the stringy ends off, and cut the green beans in half. Place them in a large salad bowl.
- Peel the cucumber, or peel it in a stripe pattern if you don't mind the peel. Slice thinly.
- Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Pour over the cucumbers and green beans and toss well. Enjoy immediately or within a few hours, before the cucumbers get soggy.
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