This Week's Recipe: Raw Bean Salad with Roasted Cherry Tomato Dressing

Why Raw Bean Salad?

Although I relish in slow cooked stews and warming soups during winter I do, however find myself missing a fresh vegetable here and there. While leafy salads are refreshing in the summer months, during winter a heartier green is what I crave.

What I love to do is mix a green vegetable that I would normally cook (such as beans, broccoli and cabbage), finely slice it and serve it with a warm tasty dressing.

Try broccoli with a warm Gorgonzola cheese dressing made by melting a some cheese and mixing it with a little olive oil and a white wine vinegar.

Or this easy bean salad. Green beans are earthy and robust when eaten raw. Slow cooked tomatoes are always sweet and full of flavour (even if the tomatoes are not at their best during the colder months) and perfect mixed with a pungent eschalot dressing.

This salad is great eaten straight away or even better the next day after the flavours have had a chance to mingle longer.

Ingredients
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
250g green beans (I used a variety called Purple King)
1 eschalot, finely diced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 120°C. Line a baking tray and lay the tomatoes flesh side down. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with 1 tablespoons oil.

Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until the tomatoes are wrinkly on the surface and a deep red colour.

Meanwhile thinly slice the beans on an angle and place in a large bowl.

While the tomatoes are still warm place in a small bowl with the eschalot, the rest of the oil and vinegars. Season with salt and pepper and dress over the beans.

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a main.

The tomatoes can be roasted a few days ahead and stored in the refrigerator covered in oil. To serve place tomatoes and the oil in a small sauce pan and warm over a low heat.