Italian Green Bean Salad is our first choice side dish during the summer months. Fresh green beans are boiled and tossed with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic and dry oregano to create this summer staple.
Now is the right time to enjoy this salad with locally grown, tender green beans from your garden or farmer’s market. You can definitely make this salad during the winter months with frozen green beans. But it just wouldn’t be the same! At this time of the year, each time I visit my mother, regular lettuce salad is set aside for this Italian green bean salad.
I used green beans from these lovely bush bean plants to make my salad. This variety of green beans is so easy to grow and requires very little maintenance. They do not require any trellising as they grow only up to about 1 1/2 feet tall. And most importantly, they produce an abundant harvest each year.
Growing up my job was to trim the ends off the green beans. As you can imagine, I dreaded this task as I was presented with endless piles of green beans from my father’s garden. Furthermore, his large garden took up a lot of precious play space in our backyard! Of course, with age comes a better appreciation of all that our parents did for us back then.
So let’s proceed to how to make this beautiful salad. It’s almost silly calling this easy two step process for making a salad an actual recipe but I just had to document this salad which my mother makes so often! You’ll find the complete printable recipe at the end of this post.
Step by Step Instructions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Trim off the ends of the beans, rinse and boil until fork tender, about 5 minutes. At this point you can drain them and add them directly to a bowl for serving as my mother does. This salad is also delicious warm.
Or, if you wish to retain their vibrant green color, plunge the green beans into a large bowl of icy water and drain immediately. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients: olive oil; red wine vinegar; a crushed garlic clove; dry oregano; a dried red chili (optional); fresh chopped parsley and salt, to taste. Toss well and serve immediately or place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Variations
My family usually makes this salad only with green beans, however there are so many possible add-ins:
- halved cherry tomatoes
- peeled boiled potatoes cut into cubes
- thinly sliced red onion
- replace red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar
More tips:
Be sure to adjust the seasoning if other ingredients are added.
Keep leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Here are more garden to table recipes for you to try out!
- Stewed Green Beans with Tomato
- Tomato Cucumber Onion Salad with Celery
- Italian Potato Salad with Roasted Red Peppers and Tomatoes
- Grilled Eggplant Involtini
- Eggplant Caponata
- Baked Eggplant and Potatoes with Tomato Sauce
- Spaghetti with Oven Fried Zucchini
- Spaghetti with Green Beans
If you try out this recipe let me know how much you enjoyed it by commenting or rating it in the recipe card below. Feel free to Pin it for later. Buon appetito!
Ingredients
- 1 lb green beans 454 grams
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp dry oregano
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- dried red chili pepper optional
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Trim the ends of the beans, rinse and boil until fork tender, about 5 minutes. At this point you can drain them and add them directly to a bowl for serving. Or, if you wish to retain their vibrant green color, plunge them into a large bowl of icy water and drain immediately. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients: olive oil, red wine vinegar; crushed garlic clove; dry oregano; dried red chili (optional); fresh chopped parsley and salt, to taste.
- Toss well and serve immediately or place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Notes
- halved cherry tomatoes
- peeled boiled potatoes cut into cubes
- thinly sliced red onion
- replace red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar
Delightful! We have green bean salad regularly in the summer, although I usually use lemon juice and don’t spice it up. I really like your take, it sounds really tasty—will need to try it out.
Hi Frank, there are without a doubt so many wonderful variations of this recipe. My mom always throws a whole piece of dried chili just to give that extra touch of flavor. We do like spicy at our house! Thanks for your comment!
Love this … slightly different from what I grew up with; no Chile or oregano, just oil, vinegar, S&P, either garlic or onion, but usually garlic. Loved it as a child, still make it as mama did,, and you’re so right, beans freshly picked from the garden, small if possible before they become a bit on the tough side. Thanks for sharing, as always.
Hello Anna, indeed there are so many possible ways to make this salad. This is how my mother has always made it and it’s what we enjoy at least once a week at this time of year when the beans are tender. There’s nothing worse than a tough green bean in my salad. Thanks for your lovely feedback!
I add tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and red onion to the green beans to make what’s called a Sicilian salad.
Hello Annette, indeed there are so many wonderful variations on this salad. My mom almost always makes it with only green beans but I do enjoy it with most of the ingredients you suggested as well. Thanks for your comment!