Green Bean Salad with Three Sesame Dressing

I really had plans to post something else tonight. The last couple of weeks have been....full. Intense in some ways, busy for sure, fun, with many joys and much comfort to balance the sorrow. Lots of thoughts I have been thinking and wanting to share. But for dinner tonight I made a salad that Thomas took one bite of and pronounced "A. Mazing!!" I made this salad a month ago or more and have been wanting to make it again ever since - because I really wanted to share it. And because I really wanted to eat it. So I took a picture today (unlike the first go round) of the beautiful beans from the Farmer's Market that went into a truly superior bean salad and I am ready to share.

I am pretty sure I have mentioned my fondness for green beans. Also my love of gardening. I planted several rows of beans this past spring, watered, weeded, and waited - anticipating my own lovingly grown (and therefore surely more delicious) fresh garden beans. Apparently I was not the only one waiting and anticipating but unfortunately for me, the others waiting beat me to the crop and there is not a solitary bean hanging on the vine for me. I have generously (and bitterly) fed the neighborhood deer. This year they have enjoyed every single bean, pea, rosebud, and hydrangea blossom my garden has offered. Every one. No joke - and I do not find the situation at all funny. This year the cheeky nuisances even spit out the flowers they bite off but find not to their taste. The only produce left for us to consume aside from the herbs are the things that grow underground - and even those I half expect to find dug up one night! Thankfully the Farmer's Markets are brimming with beautiful, beautiful produce and the beans are at the peak of perfection right now. I urge (yes  urge) you to try this salad. Soon. While the beans are fresh and summer is still here. Hannah thinks it is about the best thing on the planet. Me too.

Green Bean Salad with Three Sesame Dressing

(from The Food Network - barely tweaked)

1 pound green string beans

1 pound yellow wax beans

1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil

1/4 cup tahini paste

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp soya sauce

2 limes, juiced and zested

a dash of srihacha sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)

2 Tbsp black sesame seeds

Wash the beans and trim ends. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Dump the beans in the water and bring back to a boil. As soon as it boils, remove the pot from the heat and drain immediately, putting the beans into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking.

Whisk together the sesame oil,tahini, honey, salt, soya sauce, lime juice and zest, and hot sauce. When the beans are cooled, drained, and dried, place them on a serving plate and drizzle with the dressing (I drizzled pretty generously). Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. You're ready to go.