Beans, snow peas, hazelnuts and orange salad
Hot summer days mean a continuation with the salad theme.
It’s difficult to think about eating anything other than fresh crisp fruit and vegetables when it’s hot, day after day after day. A slab of watermelon for breakfast, a bunch of grapes mid morning, iced peppermint tea, chilled water, icy cold beer and salad, lots of interesting salads for lunch and dinner.
Days of total fire ban mean lighting the BBQ is off limits, so smoked trout, poached chicken, nuts and eggs become my main protein sources and inspiration for my salads de jour.
My new eponymous Ottolenghi book is the source of this vibrant green bean and snow pea salad recipe super boosted with toasted hazelnuts and orange zest.
We’ve sampled a few salad recipes from this book now and I have observed a distinct lack of acidity in the dressings. This makes sense when you consider that these are recipes from a retail food shop where dressed salads need to retain their vibrant colour and lively appearance while on display. Personally, I like a nice balance of oil and acid in my salad dressing so I’ve added verjuice to the list of ingredients for this dressing. I have made a few other minor variations.
Once dressed this salad should be served and consumed immediately.
To serve 4 with other salads
200g young green beans
200 g snow peas
50g roasted, peeled hazelnuts
Zest of 1/2 orange
2 tablespoons roughly chopped chives
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons of verjuice
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
Good grinding of black pepper
1 Remove the stalk ends from the beans and snow peas. Cut the snow peas in half lengthwise.
2 Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add the beans and boil for 4 mins.
3 Add the snow peas to the pot, then after one minute, drain the vegetables and refresh in iced water.
4 When the vegetables are cold drain again and leave on a clean tea towel to dry.
5 Roughly chop the roasted hazelnuts
6 Zest the orange
7 In a small bowl whisk together the oil, verjuice and garlic with a fork
8 In a large bowl combine the blanched peas, beans, chives, orange zest and hazelnuts.
9 Season the salad generously with salt flakes and pepper
10 Just before serving, dress the salad
11 Serve immediately
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14 comments on “Beans, snow peas, hazelnuts and orange salad”
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Creative Commons Copyright Licence
Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
I love this salad Sandra! So crispy crunchy and your photographs are stunning. I’ve never heard of verjuice before. I’ll have to go google…
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Oh verjuice is a wonderful ingredient, the juice of unripened grapes. A one woman crusade by a wonderful Aussie food identity Maggie Beer has made us all aware of it. She has even published a book dedicated purely to cooking with verjuice. It has a wonderful green fruitiness and gentle acidity.
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LOVE this!
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Looks oh so pretty and delish!
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Thank you, natural and nutritious too!
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Beautiful greens! The salad looks so tempting – both to the eye and the palate.
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I adore everything Ottolenghi. He’s a vegetable legend! This is a gorgeous, fresh and vibrant salad. Your beans and snow peas look like they’ve just been plucked from the garden! Beautiful summer post. I’ll definitely try this asap whilst the hot weather continues. Happy valentines! xx
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It’s a great salad combo, definitely season to taste though with Ottalenghi.
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Sandra that looks delightful. I am going to try some of his recipes. They look fab.
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Everything is a visual feast, no question. Just taste as you go Glenda, a few things verbatim have been underwhelming!
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Ah of course, now that I think about it, acidic dressings would make the salad greens wilt or lose their colour? I never thought of it like that. Now I feel like I’ve learned something new! 😛
Your salad looks gorgeous, we haven’t had the same degree of heat but I would still be keen to have some. 🙂
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Yes vinegar, citrus juice etc in dressing “cooks” the greens over a period of time, making them look faded and wilted. Just take that into consideration when you cook from this book and all will be well!
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I revamped my follow button earlier and I received this in my ‘Reader’! Very satisfying salad with vegetable, fruit, nuts and beans!
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So glad your reader is now letting me in! Yes, a really nice salad
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