Marinated Cucumber And Green Bean Salad

Total Time: 35 mins Preparation Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 2
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled (about 6 - 7-inch)
• 3 ounces green beans, very thin and young
• 1/2 cup spring onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar (or use wine vinegar)
• 2 -3 tablespoons superfine sugar (castor sugar)
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt (use less if using table salt)
• coarse black pepper

Recipe

• 1 first make the marinade by whisking together the vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper. don't add all the sugar at once: taste it first. we don't like it too acidic, so adjust to your taste.
• 2 top the washed beans, keep whole, and parboil for 30 seconds if it's the fine, pencil-thin beans. for thicker beans, parboil for a minute. rinse under cold water. if not very thin, slice them in two along their lengths.
• 3 with a potato peeler, peel ribbons from the cucumber, on all sides, until you reach the inside seeds. discard the centre seed part. roll the ribbons roughly.
• 4 mix the vegetables plus the chopped spring onions in a bowl, and add the marinade and salt. leave for 10 - 30 minutes, turning a few times.
• 5 lift the salad out of the marinade (the cucumber will have shed some water too), and leave on a scrunch of kitchen paper just so most of the marinade is absorbed.
• 6 pile on a plate, add the piquante pepper pieces if using, and sprinkle with coarse black pepper.