Green Bean Salad with Greek Olives and Feta Cheese

(This is an old recipe that has been replaced on the website with Greek Green Bean Salad, which has a much easier dressing using balsamic vinaigrette. I’m leaving this here in case anyone was a fan of one of the dressings in the original recipe!)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. fresh green beans ( about 4-5 cups beans)
• 1 red onion or sweet white onion, cut in half crosswise, then into slivers the same size as the beans
• 1/2 cup or more pitted Kalamata Olives, cut in half (or use any type of black olives that you like)
• 6-8 oz. crumbled feta cheese (I used my favorite feta cheese)

Dressing Choice #1 – with Red Wine Vinaigrette:

• 3/4 cup purchased red wine vinaigrette or balsamic vinaigrette (use dressing with less than 3 grams sugar per serving for South Beach Dieters)
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

Dressing Choice #2 – with Roasted Tomato-Basil Dressing:

• 3/4 cup slow roasted tomatoes (or use 1 can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Organic Tomatoes, very well drained (save the liquid and use to replace water in the dressing)
• 1/4 cup frozen basil puree (or use generous 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2-3 T water (or tomato liquid if using canned tomatoes)
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. Spike Seasoning (if you don’t have Spike I would use some other type of season salt)

Instructions:

1. Trim both ends of beans. (For the thin beans, I trim them by loosely holding a handful of beans while standing them upright on the cutting board to line up ends of beans.) Then cut beans into pieces about 2 inches long.
2. Steam beans until barely tender-crisp, about 5 minutes, then quickly drain beans and plunge into cold water with ice cubes to stop cooking.
3. Remove quickly from ice water and let beans drain very well in a colander.
4. While beans are draining, make dressing.
5. For red wine vinegar dressing, just whisk ingredients together in a small bowl.
6. For roasted tomato-basil dressing, combine tomatoes, basil puree, vinegar, 2 T water, garlic, and Spike seasoning in food processor. Puree until ingredients are well combined, then taste to see if you want to add another tablespoon of water. Remove mixture to a small bowl and use whisk to mix olive oil into dressing
7. Cut onions into strips slightly smaller than beans and cut olives in half.
8. Combine beans, olives, and onions in plastic or glass container with a lid, pour dressing over and stir a few times so all vegetables are well covered.
9. Chill several hours to allow flavors to blend.
10. Just before serving sprinkle feta cheese over salad.