Since it's bean time, let's have a good old bean salad!
Green bean, white bean and chickpea salad
1/2 kg of fresh green beans (haricots vert preferred, the broad, flat ones work in a pinch)
1 tin of large white beans (known as "Navy bean" or "Great northern" in the US; I preferr the greek gígantes kind)
1 tin of chickpeas
Handful of parsley
1-2 tbsp of chives; Rosemary, thyme, oregano to taste
3-4 anchovi filets
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
juice of 1 lemon, tsp of lemon zest if you like that kind of thing
salt
fresh ground black pepper
(some baking soda for the beans)
Cut (or better snap) the green beans to your preferred size, bring some water to boil in a big pot, add the baking soda (keeps them nice and green) and cook the beans for 3-4 minutes until they are tender but still crisp! It is somewhat important not to overcook the beans as with this salad they're definitely supposed to be on the snappy, crisp side.
If you want to go all out with your green beans, prepare an ice bath (pot of water with plenty of ice cubes) to cool the beans in after you drain them.
Carefully dry the beans with a dish towel. Now we're done with the laborious part of the recipe! Rinse the white beans and chickpeas and put them in a salad bowl with the green beans. Add olive oil, lemon juice, anchovi (minced!), chopped chives, parsley and other herbs and stir well until everything is nicely coated. Season with salt and pepper (I like to add some red pepper flakes).
The salad goes well with picknick style foods like grilled meats (or cold pork chops), tuna burgers and similar forms of protein, accompanied by fresh white bread.