My recipe for mustardy green beans nods to a classic French green-bean salad, but has a few welcome additions, said Ben Lippett. The pro move here is to add crème fraîche to the dressing: the dairy cuts the sharpness of the vinaigrette beautifully, rounds out the tarragon flavour, and gives everything a punch of lactic acidity.
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the salad:
- 400g mixed long beans; green, yellow, runner or piattoni
- 50g toasted hazelnuts
- 4 spring onions
- 20g dill
- 250g cooked beluga or puy lentils
- zest of 1 lemon
- 60g manchego cheese
For the dressing:
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- 25g Dijon mustard
- 20g wholegrain mustard
- 35ml white-wine vinegar
- 25ml olive oil
- 25ml neutral oil
- 5-10g fresh tarragon
- 50-80g full-fat crème fraîche
- fine sea salt
- black pepper
Method
- Start by making the dressing. Put the mustards and vinegar in a bowl along with the salt and 6-8 twists of black pepper, then whisk to combine.
- Working gradually, whisk in the oils one by one to create a thick, emulsified dressing. If it’s a little too thick, add a splash more vinegar or a drop of water. Pick the leaves from the tarragon, finely chop, and add to the dressing. Mix through the crème fraîche and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Heavily season it with salt (roughly 120g per litre of water) – you want it to be much saltier than you think and far saltier than pasta water. Trust me. Set up a bowl of iced water and season that generously, too. Top and tail the beans and cook in the boiling water for 3-4 minutes, or until tender.
- Remove from the boiling water and plunge into the salty iced water. Jostle the beans around to ensure even cooling then remove. Dry the beans as best you can, using either a tea towel or a salad spinner.
- Use the flat of your knife to crack the hazelnuts into chunky pieces. Trim and thinly slice the spring onions and roughly chop the dill. Toss the cooked beans into a bowl along with the hazelnuts, spring onions, dill, lentils and the zest of the lemon. Shave in half of the manchego cheese with a peeler.
- Pour over the dressing and gently toss to combine everything. Divide among plates, shave over the remaining manchego, and serve.
Taken from How I Cook: A Chef’s Guide to Really Good Home Cooking by Ben Lippett.
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