This salad blends some favorite spring and summer vegetables - green beans, waxed beans and tomatoes. The vinaigrette is simple to prepare. All these ingredients, including the basil, can be found at your favorite farmer's market, grocery, or if you have space or containers (and a thumb greener than mine), your own garden. For cookouts or patio gatherings, this is also a highly transportable salad. Sometimes I even combine the tomatoes with the vinaigrette and then just pour the vinaigrette-plumped tomatoes over the beans and toss it all together!

INGREDIENTS

½ lb [230g] fresh green beans, trimmed
½ lb [230g] fresh wax beans, trimmed
1 ½ c [225g] cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
¼ c [60mL] balsamic vinegar
3 T [45mL] extra-virgin olive oil
1 t [5mL] kosher salt
1 t [5mL] freshly ground black pepper
½ c [75g] basil leaves, coarsely chopped
½ c [75g] finely chopped red onion

DIRECTIONS

Cook green and wax beans in boiling water 5 minutes.
Drain, then rinse in cold water to stop cooking; drain again.
Combine vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, basil and red onion - set aside
In a large bowl, mix beans and tomatoes, toss gently. Cover and chill.
When ready to serve, pour vinaigrette over vegetables and toss to combine.

Adapted from Cooking Light