Purple bean, pear & squash salad with fragrant basil and carrot top dressing.
Our jack and the beanstalk plants have been a striking addition to the vegetable plot, happily producing a great crop of purple beans for the last few weeks, great for freezing for the Autumn. Decided to put them into a salad along with squash, carrots, and pears. They will lose their colour shortly after cooking but still make for an appealing mix.
I have cut the vegetables in a variety of ways for visual, as well as adding different textures, then simply finished the dish of with some basil and carrot top🥕 dressing, if it is at all edible, its going to be put to good use.
Finally I finished it with some pan toasted seeds, nut, and maple syrup to create a crunchy texture to sprinkle on top.
Maybe not everyone’s favourite bean, still worth while having it in different ways, even a simple roasting in the oven with garlic, olive oil a little butter and slices of lemon, to serve alongside a roast dinner or maybe a poached egg on top as I would do with asparagus for a late breakfast or lunch dish.
However, you like to have your beans, I hope this recipes aids in inspiring you to your own creations.
Purple bean, pear & squash salad with fragrant basil and carrot top dressing.
Ingredients for the salad- just some of the produce for this easy salad. This way all the ingredients can be picked fresh, still firm and crisp.
Otherwise head to your local farmers market for the freshest of products.
Purple bean, pear & squash salad with fragrant basil and carrot top dressing.
Using up some of the end of summer produce, we created this salad recipe to serve alongside a main course, would be substantial on its own with a good chewy slice of sourdough or crunchy French stick.
Ingredients
- 360g Purple or green beans, trimmed and cut into 1½cm-2cm pieces
- 2 x medium patty pan squash-spiralized
- 2 x medium carrots, various colours, if possible, scrubbed topped & tailed,
- 2 x medium conference pears, slightly firm and crisp
- 1 x Clove garlic finely chopped
- 1x Tablespoon olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Directions
- Place the spiralized squash on a large serving plate
- Using the vegetable peeler and one of the carrots, shave ribbons of the carrot by placing it on a chopping board and running the peeler along the carrot to create ribbons. With the other carrot cut into julienne (matchsticks). Start with the prepped carrot cut into 2½cm lengths crosswise, trim a little off one edge to create a little bit of stability, lay the carrot on this flat edge, slice lengthwise, layer the carrots and cut lengthwise again in to thin sticks.
- For the pears, cut into quarters, remove the core, and thinly slice the quarters. With the other pear, using a vegetable peeler, shave into ribbons.
- To Finish, sauté the beans in olive oil over a medium heat along with the garlic until just tender 2-3 minutes, season with a grind of salt and pepper, stir through the pear slices and sauté for further minute.
- To assemble the salad layer up the spiralized squash with the carrot, pear ribbons and carrot matchsticks, spoon over the sauteed beans and pear and gently toss through, using tongs.
- Dot with some of the dressing and maple toasted seeds & nuts, serving the rest as extras on the side.
Toasted maple seed & nut crunch
- 25g Whole almonds, skin on
- 20g Chopped pistachio nuts
- 15g Sunflower seeds
- 15g Pumpkin seeds
- 1 x Tablespoon maple syrup
Directions
- Toast the nuts and seeds in a dry pan over a medium heat until starting to colour, drizzle in the maple syrup and quickly toss together so that the nuts and seeds are evenly coated.
- Leave to cool and firm up into a crunchy texture.
Basil & carrot top dressing
Ingredients
- 4 x Tablespoon rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 2 x Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 x Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 x Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 x Tablespoon freshly chopped ginger
- Small bunch finely shredded basil, approx. 4g
- Small bunch carrot tops, woody bits removed, chop the rest, approx. 4g
Directions
1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, leave for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop.
Pan with seed’s and nuts for toasting 
Toasted seeds and nuts drizzled with maple syrup 
Sauteing the purple green beans and sliced Pear.
The broken oven simple & tasty recipe ideas 