Fresh green beans are a summer staple! This vibrant green bean salad with lemon and dill will have everyone reaching for seconds at weeknight dinners and asking for the recipe at backyard barbecues.
If there’s one vegetable dish that I know everyone at the table will overeat, it’s this green bean salad. I started doing this when my kids were toddlers. It was easy for her to pick the green beans with her hands and serve herself, but they still had the grown-up flavor that my husband and I enjoy.
I don’t know if my kids enjoyed eating veggies for finger foods or the flavor, but either way they’ve made a commitment to eating green beans for the long run and that makes me a happy mom.
I do my best not to overcomplicate summer food. I want to be outside and enjoying the weather, not inside over a hot stove or cutting board. That’s exactly why this salad is just green beans tossed in a quick dressing. No reason to be fussy.
Lemon and dill have been fast friends for a long time. The light and bright taste of the dill is only enhanced by the tart note of lemon zest and freshly squeezed juice. I throw in a little chopped red onion, olive oil, and Dijon mustard to balance out the other flavors.
Add the beans you just blanched and stir to coat. Voila! A delicious side dish is ready to complement the main course.
How to cook fresh green beans
The key to this salad is blanching the beans, which is basically a quick dip in boiling water.
You want the beans to be crispy-tender—the raw rim is removed, but the bean remains firm, the color is bright green, and you still have to use your teeth to bite into it. Unlike canned green beans which dissolve on contact.
Usually people blanch veggies and then shock them in ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the color vibrant, but I don’t shock anything on a Wednesday night. If I were trying to dress this up for a dinner party I might take that extra step. Could.
To have beans with a texture that will hold up in a salad, blanch them for about four minutes, drain in a colander, rinse in cold water, and pat dry with a paper towel.
This is how you avoid watery, underseasoned salad
When blanching vegetables for side dishes or salads, it’s easy to overlook the water on the surface of the vegetable. Too much water will dilute the dressing you use to dress up your beans, and you end up with stringy veggies.
To help with this problem, I wait until I’ve drained the beans to add the dressing. I shake the beans vigorously in the colander a few times to make sure I get most of the water out and pat dry with a paper towel before adding the beans to the bowl with the dressing.
Can you make this salad ahead of time?
This green bean salad is best eaten the day it’s made, but you can still take a few steps out of the way if you plan to serve it to social gatherings.
Feel free to wash and trim the green beans and prepare the lemon dill dressing a day before serving. Set the dressing out on the counter the day you need it while you blanch the beans, then toss it all together and dig in. If the oil in the dressing gets cold from refrigeration, it may clump up a bit, but it will thin out again at room temperature.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Other simple vegetable side dishes
- French green beans with butter and herbs
- Farro salad with beans and corn
- Grilled Mexican street corn
- Fingerling potatoes with herb vinaigrette
- Vegetable salad with mint and pesto
Green bean salad with lemon and dill
The most time-consuming part of this salad is cutting off the stem ends of fresh green beans. You’ll have to wait for the water to boil anyway, so you might as well chop the beans.
ingredients
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1 1/2 lb fresh green beans
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3 tablespoon fresh dillchopped
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3 tablespoon Red onionchopped
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1 1/2 tablespoon DIjon Mustard
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1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
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seasoning of 1 lemon
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Juice from 1/2 lemon (Above 1 1/2 tablespoon)
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1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon kosher saltdivided
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1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
method
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Clean green beans:
In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon kosher salt. They want the water to be salty like the sea.
While the water is coming to a boil, wash and trim the stem ends of your green beans.
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Blanch green beans:
Put the trimmed beans in water. Let cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. The color of the beans should be light and the texture cooked but firm and tender. Taste a bean to make sure it has the right texture.
Drain the beans and hold them under cold water to slow down the cooking process. Shake off the excess water and pat dry with a towel.
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Make the dressing and toss to coat:
In the bottom of your serving bowl, combine dill, chopped onion, Dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Add the beans. Throw to cover.
Serve at room temperature alongside a main meal or, like my daughter, eat a heaping plateful. No judgment here.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 123 | calories |
| 4g | Fat |
| 24g | carbohydrates |
| 4g | protein |
