Herby White Bean & Avocado Salad

Herby white bean & avocado salad – smashed green beans with lemon and a punchy, herby, spicy dressing spiked with salty capers and anchovies. Jump to Recipe 

Despite all my good intentions to update this space more frequently, somehow almost another month has passed since those caramelised white chocolate brownies (which if you haven’t made yet, you should). Apparently having a distant deadline means very little thesis work while managing to cram in a whole lot of everything else. There’s been a couple of weekend escapes to London, usually involving eating ALL the food, like the gorgeous multi-course brunch I attended –  pecan sticky buns, chocolate babka, shakshuka and rhubarb crumble by the talented Ed Kimber of The Boy Who Bakes, hosted by my friend Jen of Taste Tripper. I think I entered a food coma for the rest of the day. Back in Oxford we went to a ball (!!) and it was way beyond my meagre ball expectations from back home – this was a festival-esque, multi-stage, party till 4am affair.  There’s been long hot spring days (apparently unusual for the UK, I’ve been told..) with picnics on college lawns and Oxford meadows, and afternoons playing tourist around the various colleges. FYI, Magdalen has a deer park. As in actual deer in the middle of the college. Wild. 

I headed up to Leeds to visit Izy Hossack and ate my weight in beautiful Noisette Bakehouse baked goods at her local North Star coffee shop. Deciding that wasn’t enough, a few days later came a trip to Geneva with a friend attending the World Health Assembly – I acquired a WHO visitor pass to snoop around the United Nations, cringed as I forked out $8 for a flat white (when in Switzerland with a caffeine headache…), and ate bubbling pots of fondue on the waterfront (which I was fully prepared not to like but actually really did). We lucked out with an airbnb to ourselves in the cutest little town in France, Annecy – the ‘Venice of the Alps’ (including the tourist hordes). About a million different local produce markets with endless feasts of colourful heirloom tomatoes, french cheese and sourdough, trying to convince ourselves we were also cool enough to be locals. Lyon was like a smaller, slightly less pretty, possibly more fun student version of Paris. Home to Paul Bocuse, it was another adventure of food, though we weren’t brave enough to try some of the more ofal-ly bouchon dishes (lamb’s brains and tripe sausage were a step too far). 

PS – would anyone be interested in a blog post on Lyon, Geneva and/or Annecy? Photos, tips and recommendations?

Meanwhile back in Oxford, friends sitting their final exams have given me a great excuse to invest in a set of cheap scales and an electric beater to supply them with baked goods (these brownie crinkle cookies and this rhubarb pistachio slice went down a treat). The end of said exams has also meant participating in trashing – an Oxford tradition of literally trashing your friends after they leave exam schools after their final exam. Picture someone dressed in subfusc (suited up with a white shirt and tie) absolutely covered in cheap sparkling wine, shaving foam, silly string, colour foil confetti and anything and everything else students can think of. Then they jump in the river. It does make our exams at home seem anti-climatic.

Anyway. This herby smashed bean & avocado salad is a riff on one of the recipes I made on repeat at home over summer by Alison Roman (if you haven’t noticed from my instagram, I’m all about #diningin). The original is a three-bean salad with a sharp romanesco dressing, and it’s where I learnt the genius trick of literally smashing green beans in a ziplock bag (best stress relief, I promise) along with salt, pepper and a thinly sliced lemon. Raw green beans have NEVER tasted so good, promise (surprisingly also fairly mess-free so you have no excuses). The dressing I’ve changed up to a favourite adapted from Ripe Delicatessen, a deli in Auckland which serves up some of the best baking and salads in town. Don’t be scared off by the ingredient list! The addition of capers and anchovies along with all the herbs and red chilli flakes gives a salty, punchy dressing to beans which would otherwise be fairly bland. Add avocado and soft boiled eggs for an absolute feast. 

It’s also endlessly adaptable – I’ve added grilled corn for a potluck, served it beachside with fresh grilled snapper, eaten it with cherry tomatoes at the tennis, used various herbs and nuts available – and it is never not amazing. Also, as you can see, it is the best portable salad I’ve ever tried. No sogginess, no leaks, no worrying about things going off – it stays sharp and crunchy and vibrant.