Quick last minute salad

Do you ever find yourself needing to add another salad or side dish due to unexpected circumstances?  An extra guest, unexpected guests, "whoops, is that event tonight!?" and you don't know what to do without a recipe and a trip to the grocery store?    Let me share a little trick with you.

If you  have a well-stocked pantry, you will be able to do this tonight.

Gather the following:

Canned cannelini beans (white kidney beans)
Roasted red bell peppers (canned is fine) or some cherry tomatoes (color!)
1-3 scallions or shallots
Fresh lemon juice
Garlic cloves
Fresh or dried rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Drain and rinse your cannelini beans.  Put in your salad bowl.
Thinly slice up your scallion(s) including as much of the green as you like, or finely dice your shallots.  If using scallion, the green also adds color to the salad.  Put in your salad bowl.
Chop up the roasted red pepper the size of your beans.  Also adds color.  Put in your salad bowl.

Heat up the garlic with olive oil and rosemary in the microwave.

Finely dice a few cloves of garlic depending on your tastes.  Throw them into a microwave safe container.
Chop up fresh rosemary, or use 1-2 tsp. dried.  Add to the microwave safe container.
Pour 3 Tbsp. olive oil into the cup and stir.  Microwave for 1 minute or until it smells wonderful and everyone wants to know what's for supper.  Allow to cool slightly. 
Squeeze juice from your lemon and whisk it into the oil mixture in the microwave safe container.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pretty as is but some roasted red peppers or cherry tomatoes would be beautiful!

Pour the dressing over the beans, scallion/shallot, redpepper/tomato mixture and stir. 


This is easy and delicious, and you can have everything on hand for those emergency side dish situations. Try this with other beans such as garbonzo or mix in some black beans. Remember, we eat with our eyes too and color is important!