Late Summer Green Salad

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 50 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 6 spring onions, trimmed
• 140 g runner beans
• 3 slices bread, cubed (olive if you can get it)
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 (10 g) butter
• 2 medium courgettes
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch basil leaves
• 85 g baby spinach, washed and trimmed from stems
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 9 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 red peppers, 5mm dice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon caster sugar

Recipe

• 1 dressing:.
• 2 fry the shallot and garlic in 4tbsp of the olive oil - do not let them colour. add the peppers, bay leaf and thyme and simmer for 5 minutes. remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and the rest of the oil decant into a jug and leave to infuse until needed.
• 3 salad:.
• 4 shred the spring onions and place in a bowl if iced water to curl them.
• 5 slice the runner beans into long strips and cook the beans in salted water until just softened drain and cool.
• 6 fry the bread in 4 tbsp of the oil until golden and crispy add a knob of butter and toss. drain on kitchen paper and season well. (this can be done up to 2 hours in advance).
• 7 using a y peeler peel the courgette lengthways to make strips.
• 8 heat the remaining olive oil and butter and stir fry the green peppers until just soft. add the green beans and swirl empty into a bowl. and season.
• 9 scatter the courgettes, onion, basil, baby spinach and bread over the veg. spoon over enough dressing to moisten and serve the rest separately. dress with shaved parmesan if desired.