Green Bean Heirloom Tomato and Avocado Salad

You can use either haricot vert or blue lake green beans for this salad, it also works well with adding wax beans, yellow beans, or purple beans added. Did you know, there are actually over 130 varieties of green beans you can choose from? Green beans are rich with vitamins A,C, and K and a great source of of other nutrients including magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and folate.

1-1/2 Pounds Fresh Green Beans

2 Heriloom Tomatoes

1 Small Red Onion, Halved and Thinly Sliced

1 Ripe Avocado, the larger the better !

3 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar

3/4 tsp. Dried Oregano

1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Pepper

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/2 Bunch Flat Leaf Parsley, leaves picked off and chopped.

1/2 Lemon

Fill a large stockpot with water and add 2 Tbsp. of salt to the water, bring the water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with water and ice to shock the green beans and stop them from cooking when you take them out of the boiling water. In small batches add the beans to the water for about 2 minutes or until slightly tender, remove from water and put them immediately into the bowl with ice water, repeat until all of the beans have been cooked.

Transfer the beans to a colander and let the excess water drain off.

In a small bowl whisk the vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper together and slowly add the oil to the mixture.

Transfer the beans to a large bowl and add the vinaigrette and coat the beans. Set aside.

On a clean cutting board, cut the tomatoes into small wedges or random small bite sized pieces.

Halve the avocado, remove the pit and peel off the skin or scoop out the avocado half in one piece. Place flat side down on the cutting board and make two cuts horizontally, two cuts lengthwise and several cuts across the width, creating squarely diced avocado. Repeat with the other half. Add to the bowl immediately along with the tomato, red onion and fresh parsley. Toss all of the ingredients together and squeeze the juice of the lemon half over the salad. Season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve right away or place in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to eat.