Last night I planned what I thought sounded like a really fantastic summertime dinner.  Grilled chicken marinated in a Grand Marnier marinade, black rice salad with oranges and avocado, and a Green Bean Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing.  I was so excited to eat, I could hardly wait! While snapping a few photos with my iPhone (I need a real camera and photography lessons from my son!) all that was running through my mind was how I’m going to post all these recipes…together as a menu or individually?  Certainly it was going to be a fantastic meal worth telling the world about.

When we finally sat down to eat I had my answer. I knew what I had to talk about.  The green beans with ginger soy dressing.  They were by far the standout in this meal…at least in my opinion.  Mark liked everything (he’s easy to please). And since he grilled the chicken I’m sure he was secretly hoping I’d say the chicken was the best.  Actually, it was quite delicious, but I just don’t think the Grand Marnier marinade I made was that awesome or blog worthy.  And I loved the idea of a black rice salad, but this one, while quite yummy, needed a little more zing. Maybe after some tweaking I’ll have those recipes perfected and ready to share.

For now let’s talk about the Green Beans with Ginger Soy Dressing. I wanted to share this recipe because it was really, really good.  So much so that my mind is swirling with many ideas for uses with the dressing.  I even poured some of the leftover dressing on the black rice salad hoping to give it a boost and it was great!  The green beans are served as a cold side dish, but I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t serve it warm as well.   I found this recipe in a great cookbook named Hot Vegetables. Such a great cookbook, I love the recipes in it!

Green Beans with Ginger Soy Dressing

 

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Ingredients

• 1 lbs. green beans
• 1 Tbls. toasted sesame seeds

For the Dressing:

• ¼ C. unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 Tbls. soy sauce
• 1 Tbls. sesame oil
• 1 Tbls. sugar
• 1 tsp. Asian chile sauce
• 2 Tbls. minced ginger
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 2 Tbls. chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Blanch the green beans in boiling water until they brighten and taste tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to an ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry, store in refrigerator until ready to use. Toast the sesame seeds and set aside.
2. Combine all the dressing ingredients. When ready to serve, toss the green beans with the dressing and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

This would be a great dish for parties or when you want do all the prep work earlier in the day, then just toss together prior to serving.

3.5.3229

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