Three Bean Caesar Salad
Written by: Miss Rachel Phipps
Lightly blanched French beans, podded broad beans and crisp, shredded runner beans are the most delightful combination in any salad, and here we’ve made a ‘cheats’ Caesar-style dressing to bring everything together with jammy 7-minute Woodlands Farm eggs and rough seeded croutons made from a stale slice of Gilda sourdough. It’s a great centrepiece salad for entertaining, best enjoyed right after it is made.
Instructions
Prepare the beans
Trim the French beans and remove the broad beans from their outer pods. Blanch them in a pan of boiling, salted water for two minutes before plunging into a bowl of ice water to stop them cooking. Carefully pod the broad beans from their second pods, and finely shred the runner beans on the diagonal.
Make the Caesar dressing
Blitz together the parmesan, mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, anchovy fillets and garlic clove with half the oil until smooth. Gradually drizzle in the rest of the oil with the motor still running.
Make the sourdough croutons
To make the croutons, tear (but don’t chop) the sourdough into the smallest pieces you can. Warm the oil in a small frying pan over a medium-high heat and once it is shimmering, add the bread. Stir and cook for 5-6 minutes until the sourdough has turned crisp and golden. Stir in the seeds and a pinch of salt, and remove from the heat.
Prepare the eggs
Boil them for 7 minutes before plunging them into another bowl of ice water to cool. Peel and cut in half.
Assemble
Drain and pat dry the French beans before tossing them along with half the sliced runner beans with half the dressing. Arrange on a serving platter. Layer with the rest of the runner beans, broad bread, croutons, the seeds from the bottom of the bowl, and egg halves, layering with the leftover dressing as you go.
Ingredients
Available in store
-
For the Three Bean Salad
- 120g french beans
- 120g runner beans
- 120g podded broad beans
- 3 large eggs
-
For the Caesar Dressing
- 25g grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 4 anchovy fillets, packed in oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-
For the Sourdough Croutons
- 1 slice sourdough
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp sesame seed
- 1 tsp nigella seeds
- pinch flaky sea salt