This is a combination of two salads. Years ago in Israel, my aunt served a simple, yet delicious and healthy salad. It was just thinly sliced celery with diced scallions, dressed Israeli style, with lemon juice and olive oil. I loved it, and started making it regularly. Then I saw one of the antipasti offered at Hosteria Romana owned by our friend Marco Efrati right here on South Beach (caution: Hosteria Romana is advertised as specializing in Roman-Jewish meals, but it is not kosher). This antipasto consisted of celery, red onions, and cannellini beans.
The stocky jolly guy standing under the sign is Marco. We can’t eat there, obviously, but I can look, and when I see cannellini (white kidney beans), I can taste Florence. So I put two and two together and tweaked it a little.
I still have my sliced celery and diced scallions, but I throw in cannellini beans (sometimes I use navy or great northern beans, but any white beans are present in many Tuscan recipes) and some fresh parsley.
As with all recipes where you use canned beans, you have to drain and rinse them well. Most of the sodium in those cans will wash away. You can also use frozen beans and cook or steam them until tender.
Dice some fresh parsley, add fresh oregano, if you have it (or just more parsley, if you don’t), salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, toss, and you are good to go!
Is this the easiest salad you ever made, or what? I call it Florentine because of cannellini beans, and because I just want to have a little taste of Tuscany on my table.
This is Ponte Vecchio, a three-story bridge where Jewish silversmiths and jewelers have worked and plied their trade for 900 years. Some of those antique Judaica pieces you can see there are simply unbelievable!
So have a nice chilled glass of Pinot Grigio. Even though it comes from Venice rather than Tuscany, its refreshing, crisp, slightly lemony taste with notes of green apple pairs perfectly with this healthy salad.
Garnish it with a splash of color. I tossed in a few bits of red bell pepper to make it look Italian – red, white, and green. BUON APPETITO!
INGREDIENTS
- 5 stalks of celery
- 6 scallions
- 1 can (1 1/2 cup) cannellini, navy, or great northern beans
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley and oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
PROCEDURE
- Thinly slice celery.
- Dice scallions.
- Drain and rinse beans, combine all three ingredients.
- Blend the rest of the ingredients, season and toss the salad.
- Garnish.
Enjoy!
Yummy salad! Anything with beans tastes good 🙂
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Thank you! I am glad you like it, and I totally agree about the beans.
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I just love the look of this one, and I am crazy about beans anyway, so I will definitely try this.
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Thank you Myra, coming from you, it’s a great compliment!
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Dolly, since I’ve started following your blog I’ve eaten so many beans than never before! 🙂
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They are good for you! But I’ve never thought I have this much influence – is that good, bad, or indifferent?
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This is very good of course!
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Very nice salad Dolly. Will give this a try. Thanks for this share.
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Thank you Sumith!
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Looks good …. sharing the post on my blog 🙂
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Thank you so much!
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Reblogged this on koolkosherkitchen and commented:
In response to today’s prompt ENAMORED, I am repeating this simple, but delicious recipe because I am enamored of Italy and everything Italian, but I am especially in love with Florence, the enchanting “cradle of Renaissance.” https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/enamored/
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Simple AND healthy – great combination!
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Thank you so much! I am glad you like it!
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Thank you so much for reblogging.
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always My dear, you’re welcome.
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I keep forgetting to tell you that I love your photo with that huge Afro. Not that you don’t look cool in what we here call a “South Beach haircut,” but that photo is so 60’s!
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Thank you, I was in high school and that was 1977. I had that afro for another 8 years before deciding a clean shaven head was soooo coll.
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Ha! You’re a young one! In 1977 I was already under KGB interrogation, had been arrested a couple of times, and got myself into all kinds of trouble. In 1978 I was kicked out of the country as “the enemy of the people.” I left with a six-year old son in one hand, an exit visa with KGB stamp in the other, a shirt on my back, and no money, documents, or personal belongings. “Those were the days, my friend,” as the song goes.
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And now in 2017, here you are, a survivor and a family matriarch. A woman looked up to by all your family and friends. I am honored to have met you.
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Dear Jueseppi, I am blushing all over the internet – in reality, I am just a funky cat who loves to have fun!
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Having fun is the key to a wonderful life, Ms. Devorah. You have earned fun and happiness.
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Thank you, dear, and so have you, and I think that everyone’s unalienable right is to have fun in pursuit of happiness. People often confuse the right to pursuit of happiness with the right to happiness. Nobody has the right to happiness, but everyone has the right to have fun while pursuing it!
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Amen to that.
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😸
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That silver Menorah is amazing!! And the salad looks good too!
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Thank you, dear Melinda! Florence is a city of such beauty – everything is amazing there!
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I can only imagine how beautiful!
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I had been reading and dreaming of Florence for years because under the communist regime we were not allowed to leave the country. When I finally got out, that was the first place I went and kept returning and exploring it every chance I had. It has magic – to me, at least!
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That is so wonderful, that you were able to escape!!
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Thanks – it was one of His miracles.
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😀
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😻
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Reblogged this on All About Writing and more.
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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Thank you for reblogging.
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Thank you so much for suggesting this recipe to me. It looks great and I like all ingredients. I will certainly try this.
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I hope you like, dear Thomas!
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