Dad's Green Beans #1

I went to Kennebunk on Tuesday to pick blueberries at Aunt Jeanne's house. Sadly, in her part of Southern Maine, looks like BB season is coming to an end. I did end up with about 3 cups of berries, BB and blackberries. (These went directly to the freezer... muffins to come.)

After a swim in the pool to cool off - we headed to see my Dad for lunch. This is where we found that his garden was having no trouble producing these beautiful green beans! I ended up with about 3 lbs, we brought some to Nathan and we left some for Dad's dinner!! I love green beans - so you can see that I was very excited!

I have been SO busy that these poor green beans sat in the refrigerator for a good part of the week before I could explore my options with them. Then I asked Brian how he felt about eating 2 different green bean dishes with his BBQ chicken for dinner... He was all for it! YEA!

Moosewood Potato Bean Salad
3 C potatoes
1/2 C red onion, thinly sliced
3 C green beans (Thanks Dad!) 2" pieces
2 C chickpeas (1 can drained)

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. In the mean time, prepare the onion and place in a large bowl. Once the taters are done, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water and add immediately to onions.
Then the green beans go into the pot - I only cooked them for about 5 minutes, I love crunchy beans! Open and drain chickpeas and add to the big bowl. Once the beans are done, they join the mix in the big bowl.
Everything needs to cool - so I let them rest on the counter for a while - then off to the refrigerator.
I think you could probably use just about any dressing that you like for a potato salad, but I tried one of the Moosewood recommended options.


Cumin Yogurt Dressing

1/2 C plain yogurt
(I used Brown Cow, cream on top for a creamier dressing)
1 clove of garlic pressed
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Mix it all together, and put into the refrigerator too.

This is the finished product. It was delicious!! The onions are tender because they were lightly cooked by the hot potatoes - they were perfect.

The yogurt recipe called for optional mint or cilantro - which I didn't have - but I think that adding an herb would make it even better. Maybe a little heat would be nice too. The yogurt is so cool with the sweet green beans, I think it would be nice to add the cilantro, and maybe some cayenne. There is some yummy ancho chili powder in my spice cabinet which I would have probably added if I were at home. By the way, this dressing would be great on a baked potato or as a dip for veggies or even chips. It was tangy and tasty.

I must say that I love Wicket and Roger, but I also love cooking in their beautiful kitchen. Spreading out from one end to the other, and having room to spare is a special kind of peace for me! Some day! (Imagining my giant center island in my new house with a compost waterfall)

Dad's green beans were grown with love, I found this at the bottom of the bag!!