Green Bean Salad with Feta and Mint

I love to cook.  It is not a struggle for me.  I make time for it because i find it incredibly rewarding.  But, I am not a crazy person and i can certainly appreciate a dish that is easy and fast.

So tonight's dinner plans were not terribly lofty.  I was going to make rice cooker risotto (same ingredients + none of the technique = kind of the same flavor, but none of the texture, which is good enough most of the time), sautéd shrimp, and green beans.  Note the lack of description about my green bean plans.  All i knew was that i had a bunch from my garden and i was going to eat them tonight.

I am not actually a huge green bean fan.  At least not when they are from the store.  Normally i would just steam them, maybe squeeze some lemon and crush some garlic on top.  But it was always uninspired and pretty damn unrewarding as well.

Pinterest is my best friend and worst enemy.  Because I do love to cook, I pin mostly recipes.  It is shocking to me how many mediocre, if not absolutely terrible recipes there are out there!  Any idiot with a blog can post a recipe (what??!!?) and all it takes is another idiot to pin it and then it's game fucking over for food as we know it.  I am disappointed more often than not.  And yet i keep going back.  

Most of the recipes i sifted through today were some variation of a parmesan topping on a green bean or a bacon crumbled around a green bean, or both.  probably tasty, but….well……meh.  Then i found a recipe pinned from Saveur magazine.  It's a good thing i am typing this and not telling you about it with my mouth because i have NO idea how to pronounce Saveur.  

The recipe had green beans.   I had green beans!

The recipe had mint.  I had mint!

Okay, here is the actual recipe.  i am not going to post a pic of my friggin bottle of red wine vinegar….

1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 lb. green beans, trimmed
8 oz. feta, cut into ½" cubes
½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
½ small red onion, thinly sliced

My green beans are rattlesnake beans, which are an heirloom pole variety.  They are really cool looking, and come from a gorgeous purple flower.  

The recipe is not complicated at all….just whisk the dressing in a bowl and throw everything else on top.  There is a little bit of bean blanching required, but since i was making rice cooker risotto and not actual risotto, i figured i could splurge a bit and take the extra 4 minutes to properly blanch.



I was kind of disappointed to see the "rattlesnake" gets cooked out.


and then i was disappointed to realize i forgot to add the garlic.  but i've got to say, it was still really good.  i never would have put feta and mint together on my own, and that is why i am not a contributor to Saveur magazine.  well that, and the fact that i don't even know how to say it.



Here is my kid's finished plate.  She did the usual "i don't like it" about the green beans, but it was actually about the feta cheese that was on the green beans because she friggin eats these beans out of the garden fresh every day.  she tried one, renounced her previous declaration, and ate them up.  the risotto….. not so much.  one can't win with a toddler, ever.

Do you have a green bean recipe you love?  or a mint recipe you love?   I've got plenty of both to eat up this summer and I trust you more than i trust pinterest.

And while that is true……ugh..….I'm just going to go peek and see if just maybe there might be a recipe or two……...