A salad inspired by the gardens’ summer abundance
Ingredients (serves 4 people as a side dish)
- 4 medium sized potatoes
- 200 gr runner beans
- 1 medium size onion, chopped
- 1 tsp of white wine vinegar plus extra for the dressing
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 150 gr of cherry tomatoes
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 200 gr of full fat, greek style yoghurt
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1 lemon, juiced and the zest grated
- 1 tsp of nigella seeds
- 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
Method
Wash and peel the potatoes, cut them into cubes and place in a pot of cold water with 1 tbsp of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Using a slotted spoon or a skimmer ladle drain your potatoes well and put them in a bowl. In that same pot add more water if necessary and bring back to the boil, you’ll need it to cook the runner beans.
In the meantime prepare the runner beans by removing the string with a potato peeler: run the peeler through the side of the bean as shown in the next page’s photo. Chop them in half or three parts if the bean is long. Blanch them in salted boiling water (in the potato pot) for 5/6 minutes, they should be tender but still holding a firm texture.
While the beans cook, finely chop an onion, place it in a small bowl and season it with a splash of vinegar and a pinch of salt and sugar. Scrunch the onion with your hands and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
Once all the salad ingredients are ready, combine them: potatoes, runner beans, onion and cherry tomatoes (slice them in half if big, or keep them whole if tiny). Season with salt, pepper, a generous glug of olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Mix and let the flavours combine.
To prepare the yoghurt sauce: place the yoghurt in a bowl with grated garlic, nigella seeds, a pinch of salt and black pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix well and spread on your serving plate.
Lay your potato salad on top of the yogurt and sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
Add a bit of chilli (dry or fresh) for some spiciness.
You can use spring onions or red onions if you prefer. If using red onions I like to season them with red wine vinegar instead of the white one.
Play around with what you have available: fresh basil and mint can be a nice addition!
