Green Beans with Dates, Orange and Hazelnuts
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Stir the cider vinegar, thyme, honey, mustard, onion and salt in a small glass bowl until the honey loosens and the mustard is distributed. Pour in the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking until the dressing looks even. Keep it raw.
- Bring a large stainless steel pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes, until bright green and just tender. Drain immediately and move them to a glass or stainless steel bowl of ice water.
- Drain the beans again and pat them dry with a clean linen towel. Combine them with the orange segments, chopped dates and measured prepared hazelnuts in a large bowl.
- Pour on the dressing and toss gently until the beans and fruit are lightly coated. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Green beans keep their snap after a short boil and ice bath. Toss them with orange segments, chopped dates and prepared hazelnuts, then coat the bowl with a raw olive-oil dressing sharpened with cider vinegar and whole-grain mustard. This fruit-and-vegetable dish makes eight Full GAPS snack portions to enjoy between meals after raw fruit and nuts are tolerated.
After the beans are blanched and the hazelnuts are prepared, this recipe comes together by assembling the measured ingredients. With homeschooling mornings and a second-shift job, that shorter assembly step fits a different part of the day from the longer nut preparation.
A pot of meat stock goes on first thing each morning in our house. Preparing a component before the meal is one way to make the next step simpler. Here, the hazelnuts are prepared separately, then chopped and measured after drying before the salad is assembled.
Prep time: 10 minutes with hazelnuts already prepared
Cook time: About 5 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Dressing
- 1/4 cup additive-free apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 2 teaspoons prepared whole-grain mustard without sugar, starch or other non-GAPS additions
- 1/4 cup finely minced red onion
- 1/2 teaspoon natural mineral sea salt
- 1/2 cup raw extra-virgin olive oil
Salad
- 2 pounds fresh green beans, ends trimmed
- 3 oranges, peeled and segmented
- 1 cup chopped dried dates without added sugar, syrup or oil
- 3/4 cup prepared hazelnuts, fully dried and chopped after soaking
The cider vinegar and raw honey give the dressing its sweet-sharp flavor. Mustard helps the oil and vinegar mix, while the red onion adds bite. The blanched green beans form the base, orange segments add juice, dates add chewy sweetness, and prepared hazelnuts add crunch. The cold-pressed olive oil stays raw in the dressing.
Method
- Stir the cider vinegar, thyme, honey, mustard, onion and salt in a small glass bowl until the honey loosens and the mustard is distributed. Pour in the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking until the dressing looks even. Keep it raw.
- Bring a large stainless steel pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes, until bright green and just tender. Drain immediately and move them to a glass or stainless steel bowl of ice water.
- Drain the beans again and pat them dry with a clean linen towel. Combine them with the orange segments, chopped dates and measured prepared hazelnuts in a large bowl.
- Pour on the dressing and toss gently until the beans and fruit are lightly coated. Serve at room temperature.
Prepare the hazelnuts before measuring
Start with raw hazelnuts. Cover them with warm filtered water by at least two inches and add natural mineral salt at one tablespoon per four cups of raw nuts. Soak for 7 to 24 hours, then drain. Dry at the oven’s lowest setting or in a dehydrator until crisp through the center. Chop and measure the 3/4 cup after drying. This formula uses the dried hazelnut branch; an extra toast is not needed.
The ice bath stops the beans while their color is bright. Drying the blanched beans lets the dressing cling instead of collecting as a watery pool. The mustard should be a plain grainy preparation with a qualifying ingredient list; its measured two teaspoons help bring the vinegar, honey and oil together.
Keep the three-minute blanch in the method and check that the beans are bright green and just tender before moving them into ice water. Color alone is not the endpoint. The hazelnuts should be fully dry and crisp through the center before chopping and measuring them.
Whisk until the oil is distributed through the vinegar mixture and the dressing looks even. It may separate as it stands; whisk it again before tossing it through the salad.
Why this belongs on Full GAPS
This salad is a Full GAPS dish once raw fruit and prepared nuts are already part of your meals. The oranges and dates are eaten raw, and the hazelnuts are only ready once they have been properly soaked and dried, so both of those food forms need to already be tolerated before this bowl fits your table.
Because it combines fresh vegetables, fruit and prepared nuts in one dish, it works well as a fruit-and-vegetable snack between meals rather than as a main course on its own. Keep it in that role: a bright, portable bowl for the gap between breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner, not a replacement for a full plate.
The prepared hazelnuts are doing more than adding crunch. Soaking and fully drying nuts and seeds before they are eaten is a standing GAPS kitchen habit, not a step unique to this one bowl. Once that preparation is second nature, a dish like this becomes an easy way to use up a batch of prepared hazelnuts you already have on hand, alongside whatever fresh oranges and dates are in the kitchen that week.
The ingredient list calls for orange segments rather than thick rounds. Remove the peel and white pith, then separate the flesh into pieces that can be tossed gently through the beans. Keep all three oranges in the batch. There is no extra orange-juice measure in the dressing, so do not turn juice collected during peeling into another liquid addition. The orange flesh supplies its own juiciness when the salad is eaten. Keeping the segments recognizable also makes the finished bowl easier to portion: each spoonful can include beans, fruit, dates and chopped nuts rather than a pool of orange juice.
Chop the prepared hazelnuts before measuring their finished three-quarter cup, as the preparation note directs. Whole nuts occupy the cup differently from chopped pieces; measuring a cup of whole nuts and then taking only part of the chopped result would change this recipe. The dates are also measured after chopping. Check that the pits are removed, cut the fruit into small pieces, and separate any pieces that stick together before adding them to the bowl. That distributes their sweetness instead of leaving one large clump in a serving.
The beans are drained twice: first after their three-minute boil, then again after the ice bath. Pat them dry before combining the salad. Water left on their surface would become another unmeasured liquid in the dressing. Use a bowl with room to turn the ingredients gently, lifting from the bottom rather than crushing the orange pieces. Whisk the dressing immediately before pouring, then stop tossing once it is distributed through the measured batch. The goal is coated beans and recognizable fruit, not a broken-down mixture.
Frequently asked questions
May I use hazelnuts straight from the package?
Prepare and dry them first, then measure three-quarters cup of the finished nuts for the salad.
How long do the green beans boil?
Three minutes, just until bright green and tender with some snap. Move them straight into ice water.
Is the olive oil heated?
No. It goes into the whisked dressing and is poured over the cooled beans.
Can I make the dressing ahead?
Yes. Whisk it and keep it in a covered glass jar in the fridge, then shake or re-whisk it before pouring it over the beans, oranges, dates and hazelnuts.
Why does the recipe call for a linen towel to dry the beans?
Patting the blanched beans dry keeps extra water out of the bowl, so the dressing coats the beans and fruit instead of pooling and thinning out at the bottom.
Can I use a different dried fruit instead of dates?
Keep the measured cup of chopped dates called for in this recipe. Swapping in a different dried fruit changes the sweetness and texture of the finished salad and moves away from the recipe as written.
Storage and Serving
Serve this salad at room temperature, right after the dressing is tossed through, while the beans still have their snap and the hazelnuts are still crisp.
If there is extra, cover and refrigerate it. The measured method serves the freshly dressed salad at room temperature; it does not establish a specific leftover shelf life or guarantee its next-day texture.
Prepare the hazelnuts separately ahead, then chop and measure the finished three-quarter cup when assembling the salad. Keep the source order for adding the measured nuts and tossing with dressing.
For a snack away from home, a lidded glass container can hold a portion. The recipe provides no tested travel duration or room-temperature holding time, so do not infer one from the raw dressing.
Related Recipes
For another Full GAPS green bean recipe, see Green Beans with Brown Butter and Pepitas. It has a separate ingredient list and cooking method.
For another dish built around properly prepared hazelnuts, try the Full GAPS Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Hazelnuts, which uses the same soak-and-dry hazelnut method in a warm side dish instead of a room-temperature salad.
Recommended Equipment
- A large stainless steel pot for blanching the green beans
- A glass or stainless steel bowl for the ice bath
- A clean linen towel for drying the blanched beans
- A small glass bowl and a whisk for the dressing
- A large bowl for tossing the finished salad
- Measuring cups and spoons for the dressing and prepared hazelnuts
Next Steps
GAPS Lunchbox is coming soon.
Leave a comment