Collard, Green Bean, Potato, and Cucumber Salad with Feta

Collard, Green Bean, Potato and Cucumber Salad with Feta

Every now and again taking stock of what’s in the fridge and making a meal out of it can be a downright uninspiring prospect. My advice, just get everything out of the fridge and get on with it! More often than not what might seem like a serendipitous “mashup” in progress may actually turn out to be, in this case, a salad that stands out on its own merits and well worth repeating.

On hand after the weekend were a couple of slices of leftover pizza, some fresh collard greens, fresh green beans, a couple of baking potatoes, and a leftover cucumber salad with feta. Admittedly not that much to work with, but just keeping it simple prevailed. The result was a collard, green bean, potato, and cucumber salad with feta, served along with the reheated pizza! A quick and easy leftovers meal for sure the first time around, but this salad served with a freshly baked pizza the next time around would make a perfect offering for a healthy light summer supper!

Prepare ahead:

Cucumber and Feta salad: serves 4

This recipe was adapted from Joanne Weir’s recipe in her cookbook From Tapas to Meze  Posted:  www.davidlibovitz.com

• 2 medium sized cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and diced into small cubes
• sea salt
• 6 oz/175g feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon crushed dried marjoram leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• 2-3 tablespoons Greek yogurt

Place the diced cucumber in a colander and sprinkle lightly with sea salt and toss. Set aside to drain for 30 minutes to an hour, shaking the colander several times.

Crumble the feta in a bowl. Using a rubber spatula mash together with the olive oil, lemon juice, water, and a few twists of pepper.

Add the drained cucumbers, shallots, marjoram, parsley, mint, and yogurt to the bowl and fold in until well combined. Cover with cling film and refrigerate.

Collard, Green Bean, Potato, and Cucumber Salad with Feta:  serves 4

• 1 large bunch young collard greens
• 1 large bunch of green beans
• 2 medium baking potatoes
• 2 tablespoons any vinaigrette on hand
• cucumber feta salad
• toasted almonds

Remove and discard the center ribs of the collard leaves and chop the leaves crosswise. Place in a colander, rinse with cold water, and set aside to drain.

Snap off the stems of the green beans, remove the strings, place in a colander, rinse with cold water, and set aside to drain. When well drained slice the beans in half.

Place the collards in half of a large bamboo steamer and the green beans in the other half. Cover the steamer and place over simmering water to steam. The string beans will take about 5 or 6 minutes. Remove the beans and set aside in a bowl to cool. Continue steaming the collards until tender, about 10 more minutes. Remove and set aside in a separate bowl to cool. Once cool, combine the collards and green beans, cover with cling film and refrigerate.

Rinse the potatoes and pierce with a skewer here and there. While still wet salt the potatoes generously and place in the oven to bake (or in the microwave for a quicker option) until soft, but firm enough to slice. Set aside to cool and then slice into bite size pieces.

When ready to serve toss the collards and green beans until combined. Then add the potatoes and spoon the vinaigrette over all and gently toss together. Add a few dollops of the cucumber salad and toss until well combined.

Serving: 

Place the tossed salad on individual salad plates and add a good spoonful of the cucumber salad on the top of each serving. Garnish each serving with toasted almonds and a twist of freshly ground pepper.