Green Bean Salad with Walnuts, Feta, and Lemon-mint Dressing is light, refreshing, zesty, creamy, crunchy….it’s all the flavors and textures for your warm weather gatherings.
The salad is everything you could possibly want out of green beans.
It’s zesty, tangy, crunchy, and oddly addicting.
Plus, it comes with a lemony garlicky herby dressing which will knock your socks off! You’ll positively want to drink it!
This easy green bean salad recipe will get you a standing invitation to all the summer barbecues. You’ll be the cool guy or gal with that amazing green bean salad with all the unique flavors.
During a late-night scroll through pinterest, I saw this Green Bean, Walnut, & Feta Salad from The Kitchen is My Playground.
I was immediately drawn to it like a moth to a bug zapper, and it took me all of about 5 minutes to hop in my car to go fetch the ingredients.
Let’s discuss the ingredients needed for this refreshing healthy green bean salad recipe.
Ready for some green bean salad to enjoy while you read these words in the most mobile optimized of ways? Let’s do the bean thing.
Green Bean Salad Ingredients:
For the Salad: Fresh green beans, red onion, walnuts, feta cheese. This combination of ingredients makes for a crisp, crunchy, creamy salad with plenty of tang!
For the Dressing: Avocado oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh mint, garlic, sea salt. These ingredients make for a refreshing simple salad dressing that you’ll probably want to use on just about everything!
Feel free to swap the lemon juice for cider vinegar, add fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese or black pepper to your heart’s delight, or use olive oil instead of avocado oil.
You can also change up the salad ingredients by adding more fresh vegetables, canned garbanzo beans or kidney beans, etc. Add blue cheese, balsamic vinegar, or dijon mustard to the mix. Really go wild!
How to Make Green Bean Salad:
Begin by rinsing and trimming the ends off the green beans on a cutting board.
Next, we blanch! If you’ve never blanched a single thing in your life, have no fear. It’s super easy, and once you go blanch, you’ll never go back. Right? Right.
All you do is FLASH cook the green beans in boiling water. To do so, bring a large pot of water to a boil then add the green beans. Cook for about 30 to 60 seconds (depending on how snappy or crisp tender you like your green beans), until the beans turn bright green, then immediately strain into a colander.
Transfer them to an ice bath, and let them chill. Literally…they chill right there in that cold water.
From here, drain and strain, throw everything in a large bowl, and toss the salad. And that’s all it takes to make them dreams happen.
The lemon-mint dressing. Make extra. Call in for reinforcements. I gave you a recipe large enough for the green bean salad and then some, because you really need to eat this dressing on everything.
Drink it down!
If you don’t think you’ll use the dressing on other salad endeavors, halve the recipe so the dressing doesn’t go to waste.
I use my Magic Bullet to make all of my salad dressings because the small little pod keeps the dressing contained and prevents it from splattering all over the inside of the blender.
No one likes blender splatter. The ingredients just get whirled up for a few seconds, and out comes good vibrations.
Pro Tip: If you like crunchy walnuts, you can roast them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 3 to 5 minutes for some added crisp.
You take this green bean salad with you wherever you go, ya hear?
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
And that’s it! A delicious simple side dish with fresh flavors and bright flavors to add to your easy dinners that goes along side any variety of main dishes. Healthy eating at its finest!
This fresh green bean salad tastes even better the next day and saves well, so don’t be afraid to double the recipe for that perfect side dish to bring to any summer potluck.
If you love fresh bean salads like this, also try my Mediterranean Chickpea Salad recipe!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
More Healthy Salad Recipes:
- Black Bean Corn Salad with Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing
- Greek Potato Salad
- Kale and Blueberry Salad with Vegan Buttermilk Dressing
- Broccoli Salad Recipe with Honey-Toasted Walnuts
- Zesty Fruit Salad with Coconut Milk and Basil
Blanch it like you stole it.
Green Bean Salad with Walnuts and Feta
Ingredients
Green Bean Salad:
- 1 1/2 pounds green beans trimmed and cut into 1.5” pieces
- 1 cup raw walnuts chopped
- 2/3 cup feta cheese crumbled
- 2/3 cup red onion chopped
Lemon-Mint Vinaigrette:
- 1 cup grapeseed or olive oil
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 lemon zested
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
Instructions
To prepare the lemon-mint dressing:
- Add the salad dressing ingredients to a small blender and blend until smooth. Keep sealed in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
To prepare the Walnut Salad:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the chopped green beans. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Immediately transfer the green beans to an ice bath in order to stop the cooking. Once cooled, strain the beans into a colander and pat dry.
- Add the blanched green beans, walnuts, feta, and red onion to a large serving bowl. Mix in desired amount of lemon-mint dressing and add salt to taste.
- Serve alongside your favorite entrée.
Nutrition
Quick, easy and so yummy!! Thanks for another great recipe!!
My pleasure, Molly! I’m so happy you like it! xoxox
SO good. I ended up using sweet onion because it was what I had. Another great recipe.
Thanks so much, Michelle! I’m so happy you like the recipe! It’s such a great go-to 😀 xoxoxo
LOVE the new stuffs! Also, if I carry this around with me, it will be like I have a little bit of julia with me at all times AND lunch. What could be better?!