Fresh Shelling Cranberry & Yellow Wax Bean Salad

This recipe is a lot of work, I'm not gonna lie. But the results are well worth it. If you ever come across fresh shelling cranberry beans, run - don't walk, and get them. The creamy but toothsome texture is sublime and goes extremely well with Mexican/Indian flavors in this salad. It's almost like a 'chaat' from India, a street food version of fast food that is salty, sweet, sour and hot all at once.

To divide the conquer this dish, I shelled the beans one day and cooked them the next. I just wasn't sure I wanted to take on this huge undertaking with all the embellishments I did for toppings/garnish in a single day. The garnishes are necessary though with wax beans providing an additional chewy component alongside the cranberry beans, fried shallots providing sweetness, pickled onions providing necessary pucker and finally pico de gallo vinaigrette providing heat and a burst of tomato flavor. With each serving of this salad boasting almost 20 gm of protein and more than 80% of the daily fiber requirement, it's good for you as well!

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit
Makes 5 servings

Ingredients:
4 lbs fresh shelling cranberry beans, seeds removed and rinsed (Once shelled, mine weighed about 850 gm/5.5 cups/ 1 lb 14 oz)
3 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 white onion, divided use
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1 lb roma tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro - washed, divided use
4 serrano chiles, washed and stemmed
2 limes, juiced
1 tsp sea salt, divided use
1 tbsp chia seeds
5 tbsp olive oil, divided use
1 lb yellow wax beans (or green beans), roasted
8 oz shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

Procedure:
In a 4-5 quart saucepan, bring the cranberry beans, kosher salt, turmeric and 6 cups water to a oil on high and cook on medium hat till the beans are tender, anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes depending on the maturity of the seeds. Mine took 30 minutes. I started testing after 15 minutes. Take the pot off the stove and let cool. In the meantime, thinly slice half of the white onion and mix with white wine vinegar, 2 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp sea salt. Mix well and refrigerate. Now blend tomatoes,  1/2 of the white onion, 2/3 bunch of cilantro (stems & all), serrano chiles, lime juice and 1/2 tsp sea salt in a blender until a smooth puree forms, Using a very fine meshed seive and a spatula, strain this mixture to get a 'pica de gallo vinaigrette'. Add 1 tbsp olive oil & chia seeds to it and refrigerate to chill. Mix it every 20-30 minutes to distribute the chia seeds well. Preheat the oven to 450 and prepare a sheet pan with aluminum foil with sprayed oil on it. Cut the wax beans into 3" pieces at an angle and transfer them to the sheet pan. Toss the wax beans with 1 tbsp oil and some sea salt. Mix well using your hands and roast in oven for 20 minutes, tossing once in between. Set it aside. Chop the rest of the cilantro coarsely and set it aside. In a wide pan, heat 3 tbsp olive oil on medium high heat and add sliced shallots. Saute the shallots for 7-8 minutes, stirring almost constantly, until they turn crispy and dark brown. Remove to a plate and set aside. Once the cranberry beans are cool, drain using a lid on the pot and pouring the water out through a slight opening tilting the pot at an angle into the sink. Add these beans to the pan in which you fried the shallots so the beans can get the nice oniony flavor from it. Pour the chilled tomato vinaigrette into. Mix well and serve into five bowl. Add chopped cilantro, wax beans, pickled white onion and fried shallots equally and serve.