Bean & Carrot Salad with Lemon-Mustard Dressing

We've been enthusiastically growing dry beans for about 4 years now, but we haven't been keeping up with eating the beans. This year I am determined that we will eat our way through at least last years and the year before's. Yeah. That's how much we haven't been keeping up. So far we've been doing quite well as we are now eating bean soup at least twice a week. Time for a change, though, so here's a nice bean salad.

The sweet and mild beans, carrots, and cooked onions make a great foil for the stronger, rougher flavours of mustard, lemon and endive. Serve this as part of a salad medley, or as a meal in itself. Some good bread and butter or some toast would be all that might be needed to round it out.

4 to 6 servings
20 minutes prep time, not including cooking the beans

Cook the Beans:
1 cup white, yellow, kidney, or pinto beans
1 teaspoon salt

Rinse and pick over the beans, and put them in a pot with plenty of  water to cover them. Bring them to a boil, then cover and turn off the heat and let them soak from several hours to overnight. Add the salt and bring them back to a boil. Simmer gently until tender.

This should be done a day in advance.

Make the Salad:
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
a pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon rubbed savory
freshly ground black pepper to taste
a grating of lemon zest
the juice of 1 large lemon
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 large carrots
2 medium heads Belgian endive
1 cup peeled, diced celeriac (1 or 2 stalks celery)

Peel and chop the onion. Peel and mince the garlic. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet, and gently cook the onion until quite softened and slightly browned; about 10 to 15 minutes. While it cooks, add the cayenne, savory, pepper, and lemon zest. Stir regularly.

Mix the lemon juice and mustard together. Drain the beans well and put them in  your salad mixing bowl. Peel and grate the carrots, and add them, and trim and chop the Belgian endive. Peel and dice the celeriac (or chop the celery). Toss the beans and vegetables together.

When the onions are cooked, add the garlic and stir it in for a minute. Add the mustard and lemon juice, and mix well. Scrape the onions etc into the salad and toss well. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.




Last year at this time I made Scotch Broth with Dried Peas & Barley.

Posted in: Ontario Food