Recipe video above. Think Tabbouleh -- but with the bulgur switched for white beans to make a more substantial salad that's an excellent starch + veg side dish, or light meal for warm days! It's fresh, lemony, herby, totally delicious and good for you.To add protein, top with grilled chicken or fish, hot smoked trout or even a can of tuna / other fish.Serves 8 - 10 as a side, 4 - 5 as a meal. Keeps for 3 days.
3cucumbers(or 1 1/2 long English/Telegraph cucumbers), cut into 1.25cm / 1/2" pieces
1/2red onion, finely chopped
1cupparsley, roughly chopped (1 large bunch)
1/3cupmint, roughly chopped
Lemon Dressing:
2tbsplemon juice
4tbspextra virgin olive oil
1garlic clove, small, minced using garlic press
1/2tspDijon mustard(Note 2)
1/2tspsalt, kosher/cooking salt (1/4 tsp table salt)
1/2tspblack pepper
Instructions
Place Dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well to combine.
Place Salad ingredients in a big bowl. Drizzle over most of the Dressing, toss well.
Transfer to serving bowl. Serve!
Notes
1. Beans - I've made this with white beans to make it look more like Tabbouleh, but any coloured beans will do just fine here, even chickpeas.2. Dijon mustard - sub yellow mustard, or omit. Makes the dressing a wee bit thicker which is great for fine-grain type salads because it helps coat better.3. Dried beans (navy, cannellini or other white beans) - you will need 1 1/4 cups of any dried white beans.
1 can = 1 3/4 cups beans once drained
Recipe calls for 2 cans = 3 1/2 cups beans
1 cup dried beans = 2 3/4 cups cooked
So you will need approx 1 1/4 cups dried beans (1.25 x 2.75 = ~3.5 cups cooked beans)
HOW TO COOK DRIED BEANS - soak in plenty of water (beans will triple in volume) 5 - 24 hrs. Drain bring to boil then gently simmer in a large pot of water with 1 tbsp salt* partially covered with a lid. The cooking time will vary wildly depending not just on size/type of beans, but also the age of beans. Fresh dried cannellini beans, 24 hr soak can cook = 25 minutes. Old large lima beans could take over 2 hours.So start checking at 25 minutes, and the closer they are to being ready, check every few minutes because small beans can go from just under to overcooked within 5 minutes. They are ready when they're tender all the way through, if they are overcooked they can fall apart / disintegrate on the edges (also this can happen to lower quality beans).4. Storage - keeps for 3 days, though the tomato does lose perky juiciness the next day. I also like to either hold back some dressing to give it a fresh drizzle just before serving, or else a squeeze of fresh lemon and drizzle of olive oil will do the trick.5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 8 servings as a side. Excellent veg+starch side dish for meals, especially for warm days.