Roasted tomato and white bean salad recipe
A tasty, low fat salad recipe that is great as a starter or a light main dish. This salad uses cannellini beans, dried or canned, black olives, fresh basil leaves, lemon rind and a simple olive oil based dressing. If you use dried beans, you will have to soak them overnight, and cook them afterwords. Using canned beans will save you the preparation time.
Preparation time: 15 minutes, Cooking time: 45 minutes, Serves: 8
Ingredients
For the salad
2 cups dried cannellini beans or 1 Kg (2.2 lb) canned beans
6 large tomatoes, quartered
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 3/4 cup (210g) seeded and halved black Kalamata olives (or similar)
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
For the dressing
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/3 (80 ml) fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
Directions
Prepare the canellini beans
If using dried cannellini beans, soak the in cold water, covered, overnight. Drain the following day, add more water and cook for 45 minutes, until soft. Drain again, rinse in cold water and set aside to cool.
If using canned cannellini beans, rinse in lots of cold water and set aside.
Roast the tomatoes
Place the tomatoes in a baking dish lined with aluminum foil, drizle the the olive oil, sprinkle with the black pepper and bake, uncovered in a very hot oven (425 F, 220 C) for about 30 minutes. When ready, move onto a plate and let cool.
Make the dressing
While the tomatoes are roasting, make the dressing by combining the olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and sugar into a blender and processing until well incorporated.
Assemble the salad
Place the beans and tomatoes in a large bowl. Add the lemon rind, fresh basil leaves and black olives and pour over the dressing. Toss well and serve.
Notes and tips
This recipe contains 12g of fat per serving.
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