Green Bean Salad with Toasted Almonds & Feta

Second week of January, and the wedding planning has reached a velocity that I can only describe as alarming. Rosetta and Angela have formed an alliance — the Wedding Alliance, I call it, though not to their faces — and between them they have produced a binder, a spreadsheet, and a group text message chain that generates approximately forty messages per hour on topics ranging from centerpieces to seating charts to whether the napkins should be ivory or ecru, a distinction that I am told is significant and that I am unable to perceive with the human eye.

My job in the wedding is clear: smoke the meat for the reception. Six shoulders, four racks of ribs. This is what I can contribute, and it is significant, because a reception without good food is just a party, and a reception with smoked pork is a celebration, and the difference is the difference between a meeting and a marriage — one is scheduled, the other is sacred.

I started testing recipes this week. Not for the meat — the meat will be what it always is, because the meat doesn't need innovation, it needs consistency — but for the sides. I want to add something new to the reception menu: my smoked baked beans, scaled up to feed two hundred. The scaling requires math, which I distrust, and estimation, which I trust completely, because cooking is not science — it is art that uses science's tools, and the artist's eye is more reliable than the scientist's scale.

Test batch: five pounds of navy beans, soaked overnight, simmered with onion, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, and my BBQ sauce. The beans went into the smoker at 250 for two hours, uncovered, and the hickory smoke settled into the sauce and the beans the way it settles into everything — slowly, permanently, transforming the ordinary into the remarkable. Rosetta tasted them and said, "These are wedding-worthy." I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "Earl, I don't say things I'm not sure about." This is true. Rosetta has never said an uncertain thing in thirty-three years of marriage. Her certainty is one of the natural forces of the universe, like gravity and smoke.

Once Rosetta handed down her verdict on the smoked baked beans — "wedding-worthy," no qualifications — I turned my attention to the rest of the reception table. Richness needs a counterpoint; smoke needs something clean and bright to keep two hundred guests from feeling like they’ve been wrapped in a blanket. This green bean salad with toasted almonds and feta is exactly that — crisp where the beans are soft, sharp where the sauce is sweet, and the kind of thing that looks effortless on a banquet table even when it isn’t. Rosetta approved this one too, though she did note that the feta was "doing a lot of work," which I took as a compliment to the feta.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (optional)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for blanching water
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley or dill, chopped

Instructions

Blanch the beans. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until bright green and just tender but still with a snap. Immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain well and pat dry.
Toast the almonds. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sliced almonds, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes until golden and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper until emulsified.
Combine. In a large serving bowl, toss the drained green beans with the red onion and sun-dried tomatoes if using. Pour the dressing over and toss to coat evenly.
Finish and serve. Top with the toasted almonds, crumbled feta, and fresh herbs. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours and add the almonds and feta just before serving to keep them from softening.

Nutrition (per serving)

Green Bean Salad with Toasted Almonds & Feta — A Cool Counterpoint to the Smoke