White broad bean salad (Salatet Fassoulia)

I don’t know about you but the last thing I want to worry about today is cooking something elaborate!  A simple and delicious and healthy salad of fassoulia or beans is the ticket! Just boil the beans or buy them canned and quickly whip up a lemon, garlic and olive oil dressing; throw a handful of chopped parsley and you are good to go. Plus you can serve leftovers as part of your mezze table, should you need to, as this salad is considered a mezze item. Now I realize for a lot of folks, freezing weather does not really induce one to crave a salad; no problem, just eat it warm!

These beans were harvested much earlier from our land in the Shouf mountains and frozen. Buttery and soft, it was a delight to eat them with a garlic-lemon dressing and  a copious amount of extra-virgin olive oil, also from our olive trees. Not to worry, you can have a wonderful meal with store-bought beans. Serve it with a nice chunk of feta cheese, some olives and bread and feel great.

TO MAKE THE DRESSING:

• Juice of one or two lemons
• Extra-virgin olive oil, double the volume of lemon juice
• 2 or more cloves of garlic, mashed in a mortar with a pinch of salt

After mashing the garlic, place it in a bowl, add the lemon juice and mix well; add the olive oil and mix well to emulsify. Pour on the beans and add some chopped up parsley.