There are several green bean salad recipes that have become regular players on my summer menu. A quick search of epicurious.com turns up some really great ones, most of which are variations on the green beans with vinagrette theme. Really, it's hard to go wrong with any of them but one of my favorites combines the blanched beans with grilled corn, tomatos and fresh basil. I was craving that today, but it's always killed me to spend time halving those little grape tomatos and lovingly bathing them in vinagrette only to have Boy the Tomato Hater pick them out and leave them abandoned on his plate. So I decided a little playing around was in order, the results of which were new and delicious.


















I can't remember if I've ever used sun dried tomatos in a vegetable salad before, but they're really a hit in this one, the added bonus being that Boy likes them. Their chewiness is a great compliment to the crunch of the beans and corn, and their slightly sweet flavor is the perfect balance to the vinegar based dressing.







Green Bean, Corn and Sun Dried Tomato Salad
1 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
3 ears fresh sweet corn, grilled and cut off cob
1/3 C. oil packed sun dried tomatos, chopped
1/4 C. seasoned rice vinegar
3 T. cider vingear
3 T. olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper

Blanch beans until just tender-crisp and cool in an ice water bath. Drain well. Combine with remaining ingredients in a bowl, season to taste, and toss. Chill well, stirring occasionally and serve with your favorite summertime main dish.


In our case, the main dish was Grilled Salmon Club, thanks to Mr. Knit-Whit who reminded me this past weekend that it has been way too long since I'd made these.