Green Bean Salad with Basil, Balsamic, and Parmesan

Do you garden? The first of my green beans are starting to appear.

The vines have already grown up the bamboo trellis that lines the side yard fence, and have reached up and over the fence, meaning my neighbor may get as many beans from my plants as I do.

How To Choose Green Beans

I never know how the beans are going to cook up, even if they are from my own garden. The most important thing to look for when choosing beans at the market is that they snap when you bend them, versus bending like a rubber band.

This means they're fresh. But even if they are fresh, they may still take forever to cook.

I had garden beans last year that still weren't tender after 20 minutes of boiling. I finally gave up.

Ideally, young, fresh green beans should be just cooked after a minute or two. Cooked, but crisp. (If you find yourself with a batch of green beans that are tough and old, and refusing to become tender, save them for cooking in a soup.)

The Best Way To Cook Green Beans

Here's a tip. Green vegetables when cooked for seven minutes or longer, or exposed to acid like lemon juice or vinegar, will turn a drab olive color.

That's why if you want green beans that stay green, cook them 6 minutes or less, and then plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. If you add vinegar, do so after you've coated the beans with oil.

My Easy Green Bean Recipe

This green bean salad recipe comes via my friend Heidi H. in Massachusetts, adapted from a 1992 recipe in Bon Appétit. It combines blanched fresh green beans with lots of fresh basil and grated Parmesan, with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.

Heidi and her kids love it, and so do we. Enjoy!