Beans With Roasted Garlic, Capers & Parsley

This dressing is a riff on the parsley-caper sauce I used to make this Cod Wrapped in Crispy Potatoes a few weeks ago. The colour of this concoction is vibrant, the flavour is bold but not in your face and it’s very versatile. One could toss this in with some other vegetables like cauliflower, a tomato salad or serve a dollop on a fish fillet. It’s all good!

I’ve made this recipe a few times now and I really like using yellow wax beans. They taste just like your usual green beans but as you can see, the colour of this dressing really comes out pretty with the contrast of colours. This is a quick recipe and the only real prep required is to roast the garlic – a whole head of garlic. Roasting garlic mellows the flavours, making it more complex and giving it a buttery texture and flavour. The noisette colour of roasted garlic along with its slow-roasted flavour are a perfect complement for beans and I could eat a whole plate!

Beans With Roasted Garlic, Capers & Parsley

1lb. of green or yellow wax beans (or mixture of both), trimmed and rinsed

1 cup of fresh parsley leaves

1 whole head of garlic, roasted

3 Tbsp. of capers, rinsed

1 tsp. of Dijon style mustard

zest of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup extra-virgin Greek olive oil

1 tsp. of dried Greek oregano

1-2 tsp. red wine vinegar

fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat your oven (or toaster oven) to 350F. Cut the top off of your head of garlic – just enough to expose the cloves inside. Place your head of garlic in aluminum foil and lightly drizzle with olive and sprinkle some coarse sea salt. Wrap the head of garlic with the foil and place in your pre-heated oven for 35-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
2. Snap off the end (s) of your beans and rinse. Place a large pot of water on your stove-top and bring to a boil. Season the water well with salt and as soon as the water returns to a boil, add your beans and bring the water back to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-high and boil your beans for 6 minutes (should still be a bit crisp). Remove the beans from the heat and empty into a strainer and run cold water over them to cool and allow to drain.
3. In the meantime, Rinse your parsley and place in a food processor along with the lemon zest, capers, olive oil and mustard. Process until amalgamated and set aside until your beans are ready.
4. Empty your beans into a bowl along with the parsley-caper dressing. Unwrap the foil around your roasted garlic and squeeze the cloves out and into your bowl with the beans along with the dried Greek oregano and 1 tsp. of wine vinegar. Toss the beans until well coated with the dressing then taste and adjust seasoning with salt, fresh ground pepper and more wine vinegar (if needed). Serve as a side cool or room temperature.

 

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