Vital Force Naturals

This is a great salad to use up yesterday’s rice and any beans you have in the fridge. The recipe calls for just green beans but I add broad beans when in season just because I like them and sugar snap peas for a sweet hit. This salad works really well as a side, with a lightly grilled piece of salmon or trout.

Serves 6
900g trimmed green beans, hulled broad beans and sugar snap peas
2 or 3 tablespoons smooth almond butter
3 tablespoons virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Himalayan salt
450g cooked rice (200g uncooked)
85g toasted almonds
20g chopped flat leaf parsley
Black pepper

Steam (or lightly boil) the beans and peas until just cooked and still crisp, about 8 minutes and allow to cool. In a large bowl whisk together the almond butter, olive oil, vinegar and salt. Add the cooked beans and peas to the bowl and gently stir to coat in the dressing. Add the rice and season to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving add the almonds and
parsley, sprinkle with black pepper and toss to combine.

Alternative ingredients:
Try different beans as they come into season – string, mange tout, peas etc and change the ratio of each or just have one type, play with the recipe until it suits you. Try with cashew butter and cashew nuts or hazelnut butter and hazel nuts. Again go with your preference. I found that 3 tablespoons of almond butter is a bit much as the butter is quite thick so used just 2 but it’s a personal preference. There are many different types of rice, for a more nutritious grain try red, organic, brown, basmati, wild etc. White rice has been bleached and polished so has very little nutritional content compared to organic brown so try experimenting

Taken from The French Market Cook Book by Clotilde Dusoulier – chocolateandzuccini.com