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green beans beans carrots chickpeas celery red onion salt lemons Italian parsley extra-virgin olive oil
Viewed: 114 - Published at: 2 years agoIngredients
- 1/2 pound green beans, stem ends snipped, sliced into 2-inch pieces
- 1 package (10 ounces) frozen baby lima beans, thawed (or the equivalent, if you are fortunate enough to find them, of fresh, raw limas)
- 2 carrots, well scrubbed, sliced into diagonal circles
- 1 can (15 ounces; 1 3/4 cups cooked) chickpeas, well drained
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1/2 large red onion, sliced in half and then crosswise, pulled into paper-thin slices
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 to 2 lemons, halved
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
- 1 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Bring 1 1/2 inches water to a boil in a pot over medium heat.
- Place a steaming basket over the boiling water and add the green beans.
- Cover and steam until the beans are still crisp-tender with a little bite, but have lost all rawness (just long enough to take the fuzz off them, as an old friend used to say).
- It the beans are slim and tender, this should be 3 to 4 minutes; fatter beans, which are no less delicious in this salad, can take 10 to 12 minutes.
- Remove the steamer from the pot, reserving the steaming water.
- Rinse the green beans under cold water, drain well, and transfer to a bowl.
- Repeat the same process with the limas over the same water, steaming for about 10 minutes.
- Once theyre cooked, rinsed with cold water, and drained, combine with the green beans.
- Repeat the same process with the carrots, again using the same steaming water, steaming for 1 minute.
- Rinse, drain, and add to the beans in the bowl.
- Leaving the cover off of the steaming pot, remove the steamer, and raise the heat to a hard boil.
- Cook to reduce the steaming liquid to 1 tablespoon or less, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Watch closely so you dont scorch the liquid.
- While the steaming liquid is reducing, add the chickpeas, celery, and red onion to the bean mixture, along with salt and pepper to taste (be sure to add enough salt; beans require it to come up to full flavor).
- Squeeze the first lemon into the salad through a strainer (to catch seeds); if its not very juicy, squeeze in the juice of the second lemon.
- Stir in the reduced steaming liquid, minced parsley and the oil (much, much more oil is traditional in these sorts of salads than is called for here, but I dont feel that it is necessary for a full-flavored, pleasing salad).
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours; overnight is better.
- Before serving, bring to room temperature, taste, and, if necessary, re-season.
- (If you didnt already use it, you might need that second lemon now.)
- Serve as a first-course salad as part of a Middle Eastern-style feast of small dishes, or as one element in a component dinner.
