Green Bean Salad with Fresh Tomato Vinaigrette and Feta

Hmm...I'm tired and keep hearing rustling coming from the baby monitor...

Here's a quick post of a salad I made tonight as part of the pot luck for small group. The recipe is inspired from (again--I dearly love this book) "The Best of Cooking Light" and is about as seasonal as you can get at the moment. The beans came from our dear little Berry Patch Farm, which is why there are also yellow wax beans in the salad (they look so pretty, but are definitely not a necessity). They actually sell purple beans there too! Have you ever seen those before? They're a deep eggplant color when raw but turn green after cooked. I very much love fresh green beans, feta and basil, so I can tuck away quite a bit of this stuff. Good news is, it's healthy, right?

Green Bean Salad with Fresh Tomato Vinaigrette and Feta

1 lb. fresh green beans (or mixture of green and yellow wax), washed and trimmed

Vinaigrette:
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (the little grape ones halved and quartered are pretty)
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced into ribbons (chiffonade)

Directions:
Steam green beans until crisp-tender (only a couple of minutes, you just want to take the raw taste off of them). Rinse or immerse in cold water to stop them from cooking (the term for this is to blanch). Place beans in serving bowl.

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Drizzle in olive oil, whisking until smooth. Stir tomatoes into dressing. Pour dressing over green beans. Finally, sprinkle feta cheese and basil over top. Serve cold or at room temperature.

How easy is that? And, to whet your appetite (or warn you, whichever the case may be...), coming soon will be posts on spring rolls and a tortilla Espanola!