Nici Wickes: Good ol’ Kiwi Bean Salad

When NZ green beans are in season, I love to make this salad to have on standby to have with everything! It’s divine and whilst canned beans work just fine, if you go the extra mile and cook your beans from scratch you won’t be sorry.  

Makes 5-6 cups   

  

Ingredients 

Salad  

2 cups sliced green beans   

3 cups soaked and cooked beans (or use canned)   

½ red onion, sliced very thinly   

1 cup diced red, green or yellow capsicum   

½ cup diced cucumber, skin on  

½ teaspoon sea salt   

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper   

  

Dressing   

¾ cup sugar — any will do, I use white!  

1 cup apple cider vinegar  

¼ cup olive oil  

 

Method 

1. Lightly cook the green beans by pouring boiling water over them and leaving them to sit.  
2. Simmer the dressing ingredients together until the sugar has dissolved then set aside to cool.   
3. Toss all the salad ingredients in a big bowl or container, pour over dressing and chill until ready to eat.   
4. It will last for at least a week in the fridge, and you can keep adding to it as vegetables come to hand or out of the garden!   

  

Nici's Note

You can use canned beans, if you wish, though they tend to be mushier than I like — but they are irresistibly convenient!  

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thirteen minutes to ten on your Saturday morning. Nicki Wix
is our cook and she's with us this morning morning.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yes, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Check.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
So rappers have you had them before?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I love it?

Speaker 4 (00:26):
You love a little chicky, a little repper.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I had a surprise a repper for dinner last night,
which was where did you get that? So it was
that I just was basically I was going to David Sadaris, right,
David Sadaris, the amazing what you were there last night?
I felt like, honestly, I felt like I knew half
the audience. I'm surprised we didn't bump into each other.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm surprised we didn't know. Anyway, our listeners are going
to get so bored with us.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, yeah, well I'm gona talk about it, tell them
about David David Sadaris a little bit later in the show.
So before I went to David Sadars, obviously my my
one of a wife, Marv is thirty eight weeks pregnant,
so getting in dinner early was of an absolute focus,
and I thought we'll go to Tanuki's cave the legendary
where I was.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Of course you will well because you got in before us.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
We couldn't get a seat at Tanuki's cave, so and
step and went outside. We're at Altier Square. They were
having the Auckland. They were kicking off the Orkland Latin Fiesta.
So I ended up having a delicious South American. There's
always a debate whether it was the Venezuelans or the
Colombian who invented a rappers, but sort of the national
food of both.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
So I had a a rapper with.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Pulled pork, plum sauce and halloomi last night, which was amazing,
and it was about the size of a baby, to
be honest.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
So my wife and us sort of looked really similar afterwards.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Yeah, so I used to go to Conch before they
closed down. It was the only other place that I
knew that did because so for our listeners, so they
are are they father beans?

Speaker 4 (01:53):
No? I think it's corn. Oh you mean that goes
in them? Huh yeah, that goes yeah, yeah, yeah, could
well be father beans. Mine was.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
It's kind of and it's kind of like I always
described them. It's kind of like a corn English muffin.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, Yeah, that's actually the word. Thinking about it a
little bit, like you.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Know, if you can imagine it made out of corn
or polenta and so that they sort of heavy, the
quite stodgy, but then you mix it, you know, you
can fill them with all sorts of wonderful ingredients.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I love them.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
They're fanjastic anyway.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, and we're talking about that because of bean salad.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Oh yeah, got nice.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I'm glad that you thought of a transition, because I
was just going to say, well, yeah, you've got a
delicious salad recipe for us, because it is sort of
barbecue season at the moment, especially over the.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Next few weekends. I think, so, yeah, why are we
ripping around the country?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
People around the country got long weekends and we're all
still barbecuing. Like, man, what I love about this? Really?

Speaker 5 (02:42):
I mean, it's your quintessential Kiwi bean salad. I don't
think I've barely changed it at.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
All over the years.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
I think it's just so great for convenience sake, Jack,
you could definitely use canned beans. But I've got to
tell you, if you go and buy a selection of
dried beans from your local bolt store or wherever you
get your dried beans from and soak them and cook
them up.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
It's going to be better.

Speaker 5 (03:06):
They've just got more what I say, gritted determination about them.
They've got more bite to them. The canned ones are fine,
but they can be a little bit mushy. So anyway,
this is a great one.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Also because lots of us have got.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Tons of green beans or purple beans, runner beans coming
out of.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
The garden as well. So look, I take one cup
of sliced green beans, lightly cook.

Speaker 5 (03:27):
I just sort of shot them into not little bits,
but sort of two or three centimeter.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Slices, and I pour boiling water over them.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
Jack, because if you boil them and forget about them,
they go that beautiful gray color. If you just tip
boiling water over them, maybe drain it and do it twice,
and you just leave them to sit in that, then
actually you just get the beautiful crunch.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
But they are still a little bit cooked, which is great.
Now the dressing. You want to simmer this in a
little pot three quarters of a cup of sugar. Mm
I know that's a lot of sugar.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
And I say in my recipe, this recipe was in
my latest book and More from a Quiet Kitchen, I
say any will do. I use white sugar, and look
at that one cup of side of vinegum and a
quarter of a cup of olive wool, and you kind
of simmer all of that together until the sugar is dissolved.
Set that aside, and that's going to call the rest
of our salad ingredients. We've got a cup of those

(04:18):
sliced beans. We've got three to four cups of soaked All.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
The canned beans you can use, kidney beans, black beans, billotti,
any of those. All of those. Just make sure if
they're the canned ones, that you've drained them quite well.
Half a red of half a red onion. You can
slice that really thinly. If you don't like raw onion,
I recommend slicing it or dicing it and then chucking
it in a little bowl of water with some lemon

(04:43):
juice in it.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
It'll take a little bit of the sting out of
it for you if you're not really a huge raw
onion fan. But I do recommend you still use it
in the salad. A cup of diced red green or
yellow capsicum, again in season at the moment, which is great.
Half a cup of diced cucumber again fantastic because it's
in season. Half a teaspoon of salt or more, you'll

(05:03):
do that to taste later on quart of a teaspoon
of ground black paper, and I like a small handful
of kind of parsley through that. So toss the salad,
you know, all together with the dressing. And there's loads
of dressing in this. And the reason for that is
I then store this in a container and I'll feast
on it throughout the.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Week or take it to these places if.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
I'm going there, and you can keep adding to it
so as those beans keep coming out of that garden,
you know, the the green beans, or as the capsicums
coming out of the garden or some you know, you've
got another one, you can just keep adding to it,
and the dressing will kind of keep.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
It all fresh. And it's really good for a week,
maybe even a little bit longer. And I just love it.
It goes with absolutely.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Everything, certainly does. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. That's nice.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
I reckon you have to go raw onion, even if
it's a little bit.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
You know, yeah, I think so you just want that bite,
You just want that.

Speaker 5 (05:56):
Passion, you think, Yeah, And I'm and as I said,
I'm not a big raw onion fan, but I'll.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Always do the little soaky soaky thing and it's great.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
It just works a treat with a little bit less
and it still tastes like wonder but it's just taken
a little bit of that burnout.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Sometimes that can repeat on people. I think you start
saying that at a suta day. Yes, starts repeating on me.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
I've never enjoyed that.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Date saying that to me. Once I do something I
might repeat on me. I was like, it's not a
great line.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I sting out of the romance a little bit of it.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, you wouldn't hear that Nicole Kidman Baby Girl six
years thrilla, No.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
I don't think you would.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Not.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Taking into Will Ferrell exactly exactly that recape.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Will of course be on the News Talks.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
He'd be website for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.