Dear readers,
We’re in the last stretch of summer if you can believe it – and what a summer it’s been, especially since Frankie and I were finally able to go on our honeymoon at the beginning of July! A week in Iceland with most of his family, and then a week in Scotland (mostly on Islay). If you’d like to see the quick recap of our adventures, you can check out my Honeymoon 2022 highlight on my Instagram.
But now that we’ve come home and after a week of jet lag coming home (which is odd for me, but I think because we weren’t go go go when we got home that my body was like, oh no, time to sleep now) we have needed to get back to some non-rich foods. With that, I present a new salad!
I love this salad primarily for the dressing which is good for all seasons in my opinion. But when I made this, I used frozen peas (thawed), fresh sugar snap peas (which if you don’t have, you can add in canned garbanzo beans), and green beans (frozen or fresh). You could also add tomatoes, olives, or even roasted beets for a more fall focused salad. As I said, for this recipe, it’s really all about the dressing!
P.S. Don’t forget that you can order cookies from me directly from my Cookie Order Page on this very same blog! (Yes, shameless plug, but I need to keep pushing it!)
Hoping you are safe and well!
— Cooking Maggie
On The Very Green Salad
Ingredients
for the dressing
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 medium shallot, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp minced fresh dill
- 3 tbsp minced chives (use freeze dried chives if you can’t find fresh chives)
- 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
for the salad
- 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
- 1/2 pound sugar snap peas, tough tips and strings removed
- 1 cup frozen green peas
- 1 small head Boston or Romaine lettuce or spring mix lettuce
Instruction
- Blanche the beans/peas: The best way to do this is with a large sauce pot and a handheld strainer. You can also do this with a large pot with a built in strainer (or a larger strainer/colander that can fit inside). Fill the pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Prepare an ice bath in a separate bowl.
- Drop the green beans into your handheld strainer in the boiling water and cook until tender-crisp, 2 to 5 minutes. Remove the green beans and drop in the ice water to cool them quickly. As soon as they are cool, remove them from the ice water and let the beans drain on a towel (you can line a baking sheet with the towel). (Don’t let them linger too long in the ice water as you don’t want them to get soggy.)
- Drop the snap peas into your strainer and put in the boiling water and let cook until tender-crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the peas during the last minute of cooking. Remove the snap peas and green peas and drop them in the ice water to cool them quickly. Remove from the ice water as soon as they are cool, and let drain on the towel.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients together. Taste, and add extra salt, if desired.
- Put the lettuce leaves in a salad bowl. Pat the beans and peas dry with a towel and add them to the bowl. Dress your leaves with as much dressing as you’d like! I always recommend a little less to start and add more as you go.
The Real Cooking Maggie 
This really answered my downside, thank you!
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