(and zuchini…)
I have a confession to make: my family & I hate canned and most frozen vegetables.
This poses quite a challenge for the whole local food movement because it disallows us from truly utilizing my garden’s bounty by canning and freezing the excess harvest. Come December, I hang my head in shame as I shop the produce aisle of Cub Foods purchasing plastic bags full of imported green beans. It is a serious shame. But isn’t it worse to slave away, steaming and freezing green beans that languish in the freezer, only to get fed to chickens in July? Tough call.
Anyway, because of the frozen food aversion, I give away a lot of my harvest. It is one of the only nice things I do with no ulterior motives. (Really.) I do still end up preserving quite a bit: raspberry jam, tomato salsa, I cook and freeze kale (it suffers none of the indignities that beans or carrots do when boiled and frozen), etc. Oh, and I pickled several pints of green beans this year, completely ignoring my notes from six years ago that said, and I quote, “do not pickle beans. no one eats them,” because I figured a lot can change in six years. But mostly I ignored the note because I have so many effing green beans. Aside from freezing them again — and notes from last year’s wasted frozen beans score a lot higher on my believability chart than the pickled beans from 6 years ago — I just don’t know what else to do with them! You wouldn’t believe how many of today’s fine UPS and FedEx drivers are uninterested in free bags of green beans! In addition, two large families I used to supply started their own home gardens. The nerve!
Anyway. I have never professed to be a good cook. I cook good. There is a difference. A “good cook” is creative and inventive. I cook other people’s recipes “good.” However, today I actually invented a recipe.
I am calling it my KEEPING UP WITH THE BEANS recipe. Plus, I offloaded several zuchini into it, so that is an undeniable bonus. It also happily accepted cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and onion. I’m pretty sure that you could add just about anything — in vast quantities.
I will reiterate that last point: It uses vast quantities of garden produce. I say this because of how many times I have searched for recipes in order to use up some massive quantity of zuchini, for example, only to find that instead of four, 5 lb zuchinis, it calls for only 1/2 cup. Totally pointless. This recipe uses LOTS of beans. And since it’s a salad, you can keep it in your fridge for days and munch on it at will. Fatty finds this very handy, and I’m sure you will, too.
Twp important tips:
1) DON’T OVERCOOK VEGGIES AND
2) USE AN ICE BATH IMMEDIATELY TO STOP THE COOKING AND RETAIN COLOR & CRUNCH!!
I steamed the beans, corn and zuchini all together. I cut up 2 cukes, 1/2 large onion and as many cherry tomatoes as I had on hand. After that I thought “hmmm….” and added a can of garbanzo beans and bacon crumbles, which were both super good. I went scrounging for some blue cheese as the crowning glory, but alas, my hunk was no longer even blue. It was orange and greenish. And while I am a huge proponent of pushing the expiration envelope, even I have standards. I threw it out and chopped up the remaining fresh mozzarella I had, which was good, but blue would have been better.
For the dressing, I used about 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, then slowly whisked in olive oil until the mixture was thick and tasted good. I am guessing it was about 1/4-1/3 cup of olive oil. I added salt and pepper to taste. I tossed the dressing with the cooked, iced and chopped veggies, then chilled. Before serving, I sprinkled skinny strips of basil and mint over the top.
It was FABULOUS and GUILT FREE! Try it. And let me know what changes you made. Pine nuts? edamame? Comment!
Maria Camargo says
we starving college folk love fresh garden veggies… wink wink. i’ll send my mom right over.
Jennie menke says
THANK YOU for commenting my litlle Maria. It helps to know at least ONE person is reading my lame blog. But I thought starving college kids only ate beer.
Joy Bolea says
That sounds so YUMMY. It has all the foods I love, and now I have something to do with the corn that doesn’t get eaten. Honey, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I’ll let you know if I change anything.
Michelle says
Bet the UPS man would take a cool whip container of this concoction. I know I would! My idea of creative is cukes dipped in ranch dressing, cukes dipped in french dressing, cukes dipped in honey mustard dressing. Fatty’s making zuchini bread tonight . . .
jennifer menke says
Hey all, I just made this again, but I didn’t have corn or cous cous or garbanzos. So I used green and yellow pepper, dried cranberries and barley. YUM! I would love to add a cucumber, but…
I DON’T HAVE ANY YET!
Jami says
No canning? What about pickling for perfect garnish for your bloody marys? I just pickled a ton of beautiful veggies for that very reason. They are good in salads too… if you run out of bloody mix. 😉
admin says
I DO can beans. They are about the only veggie I do can. I pickle them, just as you suggest. We don’t go thru them that fast. I’m not in love with my pickling brew. Toooo strong on the vinegar. Needs more pizazz. Got a recipe for me?
Jami says
Nah, my recipe is strong too – I love a good tear-inducing pickle flavor. Just add more sugar to your’s and/or use apple cider vinegar. You have a ways to go before tasting the sugar.
In one of my older books, the author always put in a cinnamon stick. It’s worth a try since cinnamon is now a super food. I’ll give that one a shot in my next batch.
admin says
yeah, you are right. I suppose — and I don’t really do this — I should actually taste the brine before committing? I mean, it isn’t really going to change, is it?