Ashley happened to get the afternoon off and accompanied me to the potluck! She is clever and instead of using cherries, she made a dish using cherry tomatoes! I thought it was very smart and innovative. Her bean and avocado stuffed cherry tomatoes were a big hit.
For me, I wasted to bring an entree however, I could not come up with a great cherry based entree. Eventually i gave up and decided I would simply not follow the theme. I was still drawing a blank. I text my great friend Jonny who is a sous chef for a five star restaurant back in Maine, and re made an awesome recommendation. he said "go seasonal and make a three bean salad". It was perfect and the more I thought about the ingredients, the more I realized that I could swap some traditional ingredients out and incorporate the cherries! So here it is, Three Bean and Cherry Salad.
Three Bean and Cherry Salad
15 oz of kidney beans
1 1/2 cups of green beans
1 1/2 cup of cherries
1/3 cup of oil
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of fresh basil (chopped)
1/6 cup of red wine vinegar
1/6 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of red onion (chopped)
1 tablespoon of rosemary (chopped)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Using a strainer, rinse the chic peas and kidney beans thoroughly. Meanwhile, chop the ends off the green beans and chop into 1 inch pieces. Rinse with the chic peas and kidney beans.
In a large bowl, combine the onion, rosemary, and basil. Theses should all be chopped fairly small. Avoid large chunks. Add the rinsed beans and stir well.
In a bowl, combine the sugar, oil, both vinegars, pepper, and salt and mix well. Pour over the bean mixture and gently fold in. Avoid smashing the beans, they may be delicate. Begin the chilling process.
Chop one cup of cherries into several sizes. Leave some as large has halves and chop others into small slivers. Once the beans have chilled for about 30 minutes, add the cherries and gently fold into the mixture. Chill for another hour.
This was not the only dish I made for the pot luck but if I said anything else, I would not have anything to say tomorrow so, wait.
4 comments:
Avocado-stuffed tomatoes are brilliant, I love the sound of that combo! Gotta try something like that asap while tomatoes are still in their prime.
I bet the cherries tasted good in that salad. The stuffed cherries are really cute!
great job and I love both dishes...I copied the recipes and I filed it into my recipe file to make them soon.....thanks.
Wow, this post is a bonanza for me, since I have seven million cherry tomatoes that I have to eat very soon. Stuffing them = genius, I have to try it!
Your cherry-bean salad looks awesome too. Up in northern Canada we get cheap cherries for about two weeks, and I usually buy a big bag and eat the whole thing and, well, that's enough cherries for me...but if I could spread them out in recipes, ha, that would be great;-)
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