Color study; Sunday salad

I made a salad Sunday with the gorgeous vegetables I had just acquired from the farmers market.  Just thrown together, David and I were both startled by the beauty; what a great play on a complimentary color scheme!  When I looked around our home, I was delighted to see the color scheme repeated over and over.  Enjoy saturating yourself in the color with the following photos and see the simple recipe at the end.

Farmers Market Sunday Salad

• Cook some green beans then let cool at room temperature.

Here is my fool-proof method for cooking green beans that I learned from an Italian grocer in California.  Clean and snap off the stem end of the beans while bringing a salted pot of water to boil.  Once boiling, add the beans, bring the water back to boil and turn off the heat.  Put the cover on the pot and let it sit for 10 minutes then the beans are done; drain immediately – perfectly cooked through and semi-crisp.  Yum!

• Shell some fresh (not dried) cranberry beans.  Cook the shelled beans in boiling water for 15 minutes or until semi-soft.  Drain.  Let cool at room temperature.
• Slice some “watermelon” radishes into rounds or half rounds.
• Finely dice some onions, any kind will do

Put all warm or room temperature veggies in a bowl and toss with the following salad dressing using more or less to your taste.  Chill if desired but you can certainly eat it at room temperature too!  This salad keeps for days marinating in itself and only gets better.  NOTE: warm or room temperature vegetables absorb salad dressing better than cold ones.

Garden Salad dressing

Mix all together in a bottle.  Mix the vinegar/water with spices first, shake well then add oil.  Shake all together very well.

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 T water
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/2 tsp granulated onion
• 1/4 tsp salt
• several grounds of coarse black pepper
• a pinch of red pepper flakes
• a pinch of sugar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil