Summer Green Bean Salad ♥ with Corn & Pickled Onion

Today's easy-easy summery green bean salad, just bright-green steamed green beans (snap beans?!) tossed in a simple vinaigrette and topped with colorful corn and pickled red onion. Such simple ingredients, so much more than the sum of its parts. And just look at that color!

Real Food, Fast & Casual. Not just easy, Summer Easy. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Great for Meal Prep. Scales from Small Plates to Large Platters. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real. Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly.

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Summer: Just Let the Food Serve Itself

There comes a moment mid-summer when I stop cooking ... and yet we eat fresher and better than ever. With virtually no effort. No plan. No 3x5 recipe. No inspiration other than the freshest, prettiest summer vegetables that from here through September come our way faster then we can eat them.

So once that moment arrives, I stop cooking meals, per se.

Instead, every day, I make something for that day. A salad for the fridge or a soup to savor or like here, a platterful of vegetables. And every day I "meal prep" something like salad dressing or maple-glazed pecans or bread or pizza dough or quinoa or a pot of lentils or beef for tacos or ... or ... or ... you get the picture.

Summer: Let Dinner Put Itself on the Table

Come dinner time, I check the fridge and dinner just falls into place. Take this easy salad. One thing just leads to another.

The beans are so pretty, plump and tender and sweet. I decide to keep the bright green color so steam them in a collapsible steamer, then drop, still hot, into a simple vinaigrette.
Then I check the fridge. Oh, the corn! Those yellow kernels will pop against the green beans!
And oh look, Spiced Pickled Red Onions! If you make one little "extra" thing this week, make it pickled onions. From salads to soups to sandwiches to tacos to eggs to ... everything tastes just that much better with a few strands of pickled onion.
And that's it, that's our salad for the evening. No grocery trip. No meal plan. No recipe. Just ingredients that understand how to make the most of themselves with what's on hand. I throw a pizza or some chicken on the grill or build a big dinner salad. And that's that, there's dinner.

This recipe is so quick and easy that I'm adding it to a growing collection of easy summer recipes published all summer long ever since 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

In Summer, Do Your Meals Start to Cook Themselves?

This is how mine do. Now if they'd only pitch in on the cleanup!

You Might Be Wondering

WHY TOSS HOT BEANS INTO THE VINAIGRETTE? Other green bean salads call for steaming or simmering the beans just until tender but still bright green – then "shocking" the beans by putting them straight into a bowl of ice water called an "ice bath". The instant temperature change does two important things. First, it stops the cooking process, that means the beans don't overcook and turn soft and mushy. Second, by stopping the cooking, the beans retain their bright green color. For this salad, however, I'm willing to sacrifice some color to let the beans soak up the vinaigrette, something that cold beans won't do. It's a good tradeoff.
MAKE IT YOUR OWN! A little feta or queso fresco sprinkled over top? Marvelous. Or toasted walnuts? Or thin slivers of red cabbage? Or maybe a few mini balls of fresh mozzarella? Or a few slivers of grape or fresh cherries? See what I mean? Supper just makes itself.

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RECIPE for SUMMER GREEN BEAN SALAD with CORN & PICKLED ONION

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 20 minutes
Serves 4

BEANS
1 pound fresh green beans

VINAIGRETTE
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt & pepper

COMBINE
Vinaigrette
Hot Green Beans
1 ear corn, How to Cut Corn Off the Cob, Keeping All Ten Fingers, Capturing Every Delicious Kernel and Every Drop of Sweet Corn "Milk"
Spiced Pickled Red Onions

STEAM THE GREEN BEANS Bring an inch of water to a boil in a large pan or saucepan. Insert a collapsible steamer basket into the pan and top with the beans. Cover the pan and let steam just until tender but still bright green.

VINAIGRETTE While the beans cook, whisk the vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl.

COMBINE Lift the steamer basket and beans out of the pan. Pour the water out of the pan and return the beans to the hot pan. Pour the Vinaigrette over the hot beans, toss well and let soak a minute or two. Spread the beans across a platter, top with corn kernels and Pickled Onions.

MAKE-AHEAD Definitely! But stop when the beans are in the Vinaigrette, then add the corn and Pickled Onions just before serving.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving: 88 Calories; 4g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 24mg Sodium; 13g Carb; 5g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 3g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 1 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 3 & Freestyle 1 & myWW green 2 & blue 1 & purple 1

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Quick! Quick! Quick! More Recipes With These Ingredients

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More Summer-y Green Bean Salad Recipes

~ Chilled Green Bean Salad with Rosemary & Garlic Oil ~
~ Fresh Green Bean Salad with Asian Dressing ~
~ Fresh Three-Bean Salad ~
~ more green bean recipes ~

~ Green Bean Garden Salad ~
~ more green bean recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

Seasonal Eating During the Height of Summer Across the Years

Eggplant, Tomato & Mozzarella Sandwiches Southern Farm-Stand Stew (< this week's healthy favorite!) Fresh Tomato with Fresh Mozzarella Artichoke & Pepper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Zucchini Timbale with Cheese (Crustless Zucchini Cheese Pie) My First Panzanella Clean-out-the-Fridge Noodle Bowl Spring & Summer Sliced Salad What Is This Pan? Carrot & Sesame Salad Jicama Slaw Cucumbers in Vinegar Zucchini Carpaccio Cowboy Coleslaw Farro with Beet Greens How to Keep Fresh Vegetables Fresh Longer Raw Eggplant Salad Tossed Caprese Salad Falling In Love with Green Beans: Favorite Recipes Creamy Feta Mousse with Greek Salads < just gorgeous! Crustless Quiche with Greens & Garden Vegetables Vegetables 101: What Is a Tomatillo? Black Bean & Corn Salad Chilled Zucchini Noodle Salad with Pesto, Sweet Corn & Sun-Dried Tomato Cauliflower Steaks with Warm Corn & Poblano Salsa Cucumber Smoothies

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Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables. Join "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.

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