Tags
Basil, Black Pepper, Cape Town, Cape Town Food Blogs, Chefs & Cooks, cherry tomatoes, Clifton Kitchen, Cooking Through The Seasons, Food writer, Food Writing, Green Beans, Healthy Meals, Kate Abbott, Lifestyle, Olive oil, Photography, Quick meals, Salads, Seas salt, South African Food Blogs, Tomato and Green bean salad, Vegetarian
With summer comes the wonderful abundance of fresh garden produce. Green beans, cherry tomatoes and beautiful sweet Basil are popped into my garden basket; with these few ingredients I will make a salad that is enormously satisfying. Infusing the basil in the olive oil brings out its wonderful aromatic flavour, and together with the tomatoes provides beautiful summery notes to this gorgeous salad.
The salad may be served as a starter or as a light lunch, the latter served with some nice French baguette and a glass of crisp white wine.
![clip_image002[4]](https://cliftonkitchen.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/clip_image0024.jpg "clip_image002[4]")
![clip_image004[4]](https://cliftonkitchen.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/clip_image0044.jpg "clip_image004[4]")
Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a light lunch
Ingredients
2 cups of fresh green beans
½ cup fresh basil leaves
5 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes cut into half or into quarters
Flaked sea salt & freshly ground black Pepper – season to taste
Method
Top and Tail the green beans then blanch them in boiling salted water; remove when they have turned bright green and are still slightly crisp (about 4-5 minutes), refresh in cold water. Cut the beans into three or four pieces and set aside.
Gently tear the basil leaves into small pieces; reserve a few leaves to use later as garnish.
Pour the olive oil in a pan, add the torn basil leaves and heat gently for about 1-2 minutes, until the basil begins to sizzle, change colour and crisp up slightly.
Place the chopped cherry tomatoes and cooked green beans in a bowl; pour over the basil infused oil with the gently sizzled basil leaves; season with flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss together gently and leave for 15-30 minutes to allow all the flavours to infuse and for the basil infused olive oil to mingle with the tomato juices.
To serve: garnish with a few fresh basil leaves.
Clifton Kitchen - Cooking Through The Seasons 
Another effective way to preserve basil is to pick the larger leaves, wash and dry them and then place each leaf in a wide-mouthed shallow jar, sprinkling a little salt on each leaf as you stack them up in the container. Fill the jar with olive oil so all leaves are covered, screw the lid on firmly and keep in the refrigerator. Depending upon the quality of the fresh leaves, basil stored this way should last up to three months before any blackening occurs. Dried basil is dark green in color and is readily available from food stores, however as for all other dried herbs, only buy dried basil in good quality packaging to retain maximum flavour and store in a cool dark place.
Your summer receipes bring a little sunshine to these northern snow covered gardens! Wil save it for 6 months !!
At least you have something to look forward too, not so?
Looks tasty Kate, but will it put meat on my ribs. A few Swedish meatballs would suit me thinks. Hope you had a lovely x/mas holiday.
Kenny x
Hi Kenny, Perhaps you could serve with your Swedish meatballs. Had a lovely Christmas thanks, and from what I read, you did too. Take care xx Bush telephone
Your salad has me looking forward to warm summer days and produce from my garden.
Yes produce from your own garden is always such a treat
This looks perfect for lunch on my low Cholestral diet
Susan
Enjoy Susan, it is utterly delicious.