Tomato & Broad Bean Salad with Salsa Verde

Tomato & Broad Bean Salad with Salsa Verde makes a wonderfully summery meal.

I like it with some feta cheese crumbled over the top. But you can leave that off for a completely plant-based dish.

Eat on its own, with bread, with a range of other salads, or as a side dish.

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This great little Summer salad came about when I took delivery of a box of fresh organic vegetables from Moorland Veg Box.

Read my blog post all about Moorland Veg Box here

I’d been hoping that broad beans, now in season, would be in the box and was extremely pleased that they were.

I love broad beans. To be good though, I think they must be really fresh.

They’re such a disappointment when they turn out to be old and mealy, so I rarely buy them.

Although I used to grow a few, we don’t really have space where we live now (and I’m a rather lazy gardener). So I usually resort to frozen baby ones, which aren’t too bad at all if that’s all you have.

But the ones from Moorland Veg Box were perfect and, like everything else in the box, wonderfully fresh.

All they needed after podding was just a few minutes boiling to make them wonderfully tender.

TOMATO & BROAD BEAN SALAD WITH SALSA VERDE

Because the quality of the vegetables were so good, I decided to make a salad with the broad beans along with some of the veg box tomatoes.

I like my broad beans skinless. This reveals their bright green colour and increases their ability to soak up flavours and dressings.

It might seem like too finicky a task to bother. But I think of it like shelling peas: something to enjoy in a leisurely way, rather than a chore.

After you’ve simmered the beans, tip them into a colander and run cold water from the tap over them.

Taking one bean at a time, lightly squeeze it between your thumb and forefinger. The skin should split and the shiny bean just pop out. If it doesn’t, make a little nick with your thumbnail first.

For the Tomato & Broad Bean Salad with Salsa Verde, I plated the beans with the sliced tomatoes and a few rings of red onion. Then I added little blobs of salsa verde all over.

SALSA VERDE

Salsa Verde (literally ‘green sauce’) is a versatile, herby, Italian cold sauce that can add robust flavour to all sorts of dishes: meat, vegetables, salads, fish, cheese, eggs and pasta.

Everyone has their own may of making it. Some include anchovy, some lemon or wine vinegar. A range of herbs can be used including parsley, mint, basil and in proportions according to personal taste.

I talked about my version of salsa verde in my recipe for Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower so I won’t repeat it all here.

The salsa verde for this Tomato & Bean Salad is the same, except for a couple of tweaks.

• I left out the anchovies as I knew I wanted to crumble feta over the top of the salad. Together, they could make the dish too salty.
• I switched the quantities of mint & parsley so that mint was dominant as it goes so well with broad beans.

I suggest you make the salsa verde an hour before you need it if you can. This will allow the flavours to meld and improve.

After you’ve added the salsa verde, all that’s left to do then is crumble over the optional feta and your fresh and punchy salad is ready.

You can eat the salad on its own as a light meal, with bread, with a range of other dishes for a mezze type feast, or as a side dish.

We ate it with salmon pan-fried until golden plus a few boiled potatoes dressed with a lemon and chive vinaigrette. A wonderful, summery meal.

Have you made Tomato & Broad Bean Salad with Salsa Verde?

Leave a comment to let me know what you thought & don’t forget to rate the recipe.

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Tomato & Broad Bean Salad with Salsa Verde

A wonderfully summery light meal. Eat on its own, with bread, other dishes as part of a mezze, or as a side. Omit the feta cheese for a completely plant-based dish.

Course Main Course, Side Dish, Salad, Lunch, Light Meal

Cuisine Vegetarian, Vegan, World

Keyword summer

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Setting aside the salsa verde 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 38 minutes

Servings 2

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 1 batch salsa verde see Recipe Notes
• 500 g broad beans in their pods
• 400 g tomatoes sliced
• 1 small red onion thinly sliced
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 50 g feta cheese optional

Instructions

1. Make a batch of this salsa verde (see Recipe Notes below for changes to original recipe).

   Set aside for the flavours to meld (1 hour).

2. Pod the broad beans.

   Put the beans in saucepan with boiling water from a kettle and simmer until tender (depending on size and age, approximately 3-8 min).

   Drain the beans in a colander and cool under the running cold tap.

3. Remove the skins from the broad beans: make a nick in the skin with your thumbnail then gently squeeze until the bean pops out. Discard the skins.

4. Lay out the sliced tomatoes, onions and skinned broad beans attractively on a plate.

   Season lightly with salt and grind over black pepper.

5. Spoon blobs of the salsa verde all over the salad.

6. Crumble over the feta if using and serve.

Recipe Notes

Follow this recipe for the Salsa Verde, leaving out the anchovies and switch the quantities of mint and parsley.

 

 

IF YOU LIKED THIS RECIPE, TRY QUINOA SALAD WITH PEAS & BROAD BEANS