Meatless Monday: Storm the Bastille with Green Bean Salad (Recipe)

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, celebrating the start of the French Revolution. The French Revolution didn't happen because it seemed like a fun idea with a rockin' theme song. It happened because the French had had it up to here with social and economic conditions you may be familiar with, including crippling national debt, high unemployment and astronomical food costs.

The tipping point came when France got whacked by a few nasty crop-decimating seasons. Not so much food, lots of people and sorry-ass food distribution. Starving and desperate, people lived on bread. Then the price of bread shot up so it cost almost as much as a week's wages. Folks took to the streets.

Okay, America in 2009 isn't exactly like the France of 220 years ago, but there are eerie parallels. Debt? Check. Unemployment? We're at 9.5 percent. We have a plentiful food supply but wonky ideas about distribution. We bypass local farmers in favor of food flown in from afar. This comes at a cost -- dwindling fossil fuel and a disconnect --we've become estranged from our food.

In that regard, the French had it better than we do. They had an intimate relationship with their food -- they not only ate it, they grew it and cooked it. They didn't have to decipher labels and worry about what funky additives lurked in their processed food. Local, seasonal eating was all anyone knew.

We, on the other hand, have forgotten the pleasure of enjoying produce at its moment of ripe perfection. Instead we're "feeding at the food industry's all-you-can-eat buffet," as Hank Cardello writes in Stuffed. What's worse, our food industry rewards bad behavior. A fast food burger is cheaper than fresh broccoli. But there's a hidden cost -- unlike the French, we're not wraithlike from starvation, we're obese -- more than ever -- but we're undernourished and sick because of the foods we eat.

Marie Antoinette is believed to have said, let them eat cake. The American food industry is saying, let them eat crap.

Let's not.

Let's start our own revolution. Let's take to the streets, take to our kitchens, take back the food we eat. Pass on processed food and buy from farmers who grow our produce responsibly. And -- mon dieu -- let's learn how to prepare it.

Celebrate Bastille Day by remembering fun Frenchman Francois de La Rochefoucauld who said, "To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art." Eat intelligently. Eat well. Eat green. Eat as though the world depends on it. Because it does. Viva la revolution and bon appetit.

To find out more about Meatless Monday, go to www.meatlessmonday.com

Warm Green Bean Salad Comme Les Francais

No doubt about it, the French know how to eat and what to eat -- including the pleasure of warm salads. Warm salads are no veggie afterthought, they're dinner's raison d'etre.

If the only warm salad you know is the classic wilted spinach salad puddled in bacon dressing, this green bean salad is a lovely summer thing, bright, freshness, pigless and a breeze to make when it's too hot to hang out in the kitchen.

Add crusty whole grain bread and veggie pate or cheese and you've got dinner.

1-1/2 pounds green beans
3 cloves garlic
2 scallions
8 ounces portobellos
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup white wine or vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 pint grape tomatoes

For dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil or walnut oil
2 tablespoons prepared Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

optional -- hard boiled egg halves for garnish

Trim green beans and steam until bright green and crisp-tender, about 7 minutes. Rinse and plunge beans into ice water (this may be done a day ahead. Once beans are cool, blot dry and refrigerate covered until ready to use).

Chop garlic and scallions. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and scallions. Stir until vegetables wilt, about 3-5 minutes. Add sliced portobellos and cook another 2 minutes. Flip mushroom slices and add the wine or broth. Reduce heat to medium and continue sauteeing until mushrooms darken and are just tender. Remove skillet contents to a plate, reserve the skillet as is.

Place chopped walnuts in an ovenproof dish and toast in oven at 400 for 8 to 10 minutes, until dark and fragrant. Remove from oven.

Meanwhile, prepare salad dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together olive or walnut oil, mustard, honey and balsamic vinegar.

Place skillet over medium-high heat. Add green beans, pour dressing over all and toss to coat. Toss gently until heated though, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add grape tomatoes and stir. Continue heating another 3 minutes. Vegetables should be just warm with a slight luster from the dressing.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and transfer to bowl or platter. Top with portobellos and walnuts and optional hard boiled eggs.


Serves 4 to 6.

Comments

[Olivia Rosewood - Huffpost Blogger]

Sounds delicious! We are trying it tonight.

[AngieMom57]

Cool Cucumber Soup

4 cucumbers
2 cups filtered water
1/4 cups rolled oats (oatmeal)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Boil oats in water for 5 minutes w/salt. Puree in food processor or blender with remaining ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste. Chill or serve at room temperature.

[Clairvaux]

Sounds yummy, Ms. Kanner.

I'm going to try it with some sprouted beans added.

[TXfemmom]

This sounds yummy and pretty easy. Thanks for the recipe. In the summer, we used to often have fresh corn on the cob, green beans, and sliced cold tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch or dinner and no meat was required. Of course, that was when the family had a communal family garden just 150 feet from our house and we could go out and pick the food and be eating it half an hour later. Perhaps I dreamed that it tasted better....­but no, it did taste better.

[Thomas Murphy]

THIS kind of thing is what you people call GREEN NEWS? Ridiculous­.....

[Clairvaux]

Oh my, a cynical carnivore is on the loose.

[AngieMom57]

Meatless Monday Menu:

Vegetable Wakame Soup
Garden Salad with Almond Basil Dressing
Blanched Summer Squash & Sautéed Red Cabbage with Hoja Santa
Mixed Blanched Greens with Beet Sauce
Mixed Brown Rice
Pinto Beans
Cucumber Pressed Salad

From my old stomping grounds: Casa de Luz in Austin Texas :-)

[BannedNBoston]

Im grilling grassfed beef for supper I bought them already knowing its meatless Monday.
Never eat a politcally correct diet eat whole foods organic foods and critters that roam the fields eating grass.

[drkazmd65]

I reccomend this recipe,... with home-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, & peppers. (I don't grow parsley,onions or garlic,.. but buy them at the local food co-op).

Quick Gazpacho:
Three medium tomatoes
One medium cucumber (peeled)
One medium anahiem pepper
One half a medium yellow onion (one small will also do)
Three cloves of garlic
on half cup chopped parsley
one cup water
Salt & pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in blender, and puree to desired consistency. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve with good bread or potatoes.

Maybe a side of lentils,..­..