Mediterranean Salad with Green Beans

This week our focus is quick, budget-friendly meals, I’ll share two recipes my family loves. Both are meatless and instead have beans.  Beans are a great replacement for meat. They offer variety, are a great source of protein and fibre and help to lower your saturated fat (unhealthy fat) intake.

This salad took me about 15 minutes to make and cost $2.31 per serving. I also served everyone a slice of Potato Cheese Focaccia bread which increased the cost to $2.93 per serving. Compare this to the amount you would pay in a restaurant for a comparable entrée salad – at least $8.

You could reduce the cost of this salad by purchasing ingredients on sale – I paid full price, and even further if you use dried beans instead of canned (just follow the directions to cook them).

Ingredients

225 g (8 oz.) green beans, trimmed and halved

2 navel oranges *

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. white-wine vinegar**

Salt and pepper to taste

1 ½ cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (200 g/6 oz.)***

1 head romain lettuce, halved and roughly chopped

1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 can (540mL/19 oz.) white beans, rinsed and drained

Directions

In a medium saucepan of boiling water, cook green beans until crisp-tender, 4-6 minutes. Drain green beans, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Using a sharp knife, slice off both ends of each orange. Cut off peel, following the curve of the fruit. Halve each fruit from top to bottom, and thinly slice each half crosswise.

In a bowl, whisk together oil and vinegar: season with salt and pepper. Add cheese, oranges, lettuce, onion, beans and green beans. Toss to combine.

Enjoy! Shannon RD

* I used mandarin oranges 

*Substitute any type of vinegar

***Substitute any type of cheese

Original recipe from http://www.marthastewart.com/336939/mediterranean-salad-with-green-beans-and?czone=food%2Fdinner-tonight-center%2Fdinner-tonight-main-courses&gallery=274292&slide=336939&center=276948