This super easy Summer salad is made with beautiful tomatoes and three different types of beans: Italian borlotti, Dutch spekbonen (a huge type of green bean) and broad beans.
I’ve used udon noodles because I love them and I like to change my pasta type from time to time. You can of course use thick spaghetti or any other noodles, though udon cooks really fast and that’s great, especially in Summer.
The dressing has an oriental taste too since it’s made with sesame oil, sriracha and soy sauce, and that works really well with the fleshy Summer tomatoes I chose.
You can double-shell the broad beans for a more tender result. If you do so, know that they’ll cook a lot quicker than the green beans, so keep that in mind when timing the process. I love their chewiness and I’ve left them single-shelled.
If you can find fresh borlotti beans (the beautifully red-speckled ones) they’re better than dried ones since they’ll cook a lot faster in the same water you’re going to use for the udon.
Insalata con udon e tre legumi
Serves 2
150 gr. udon
2-3 ripe tomatoes
1 handful of spekbonen (thick Dutch string beans) or 2 handfuls of green beans
18-20 broad beans, shelled
2 handfuls of borlotti beans, shelled
1 clove of garlic
3 tbsp of sesame oil
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1-2 tbsp sriracha sauce
Cook the borlotti in the salted water you’re going to use for the udon, then add the hand-broken udon when the beans are almost done.
Steam or blanch the green beans and the broad beans in the same pan (if you blanch them, use salted water). Drain and leave to cool off a bit.
Cut the green beans in big pieces.
Chop the tomatoes in chunks.
Make the dressing by mixing the sesame oil with the soy sauce, the sriracha and the finely chopped garlic.
Drain the udon and the borlotti and rinse with cold water.
Put the noodles and all the beans in a bowl and add the tomatoes plus the dressing. Toss well, add some oil if necessary and serve at room temperature.
