Spring Butter Bean Salad with Carrot Ribbons and Carrot Pesto

Welcome warmer weather with this fresh and delicious butter bean salad.  Creamy butter beans are enrobed in a pesto of carrot tops and basil for a no-waste salad that screams of spring. It is hearty enough to be a lunch main dish or a hearty side for dinner.  

CARROT TOP PESTO IS THE SAUCE YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR

This recipe makes way more pesto than you need, which is a great thing. It keeps in the fridge for a week and it's excellent drizzled over sandwiches, eggs, pasta or used as a dipping sauce for veggies or toasted bread. You can mash leftover butter beans from this recipe on toast and drizzle with the pesto for a fast lunch or appetizer the next day. 

The Bean: Baby Butter Beans, Grown by Chris Capaul in Sacramento Valley

These are not your mom's lima beans. Not even a little bit.

Our Baby Butter Beans are the best-selling bean in our shop, and once you cook with them you will understand exactly why. Small, creamy, and delicate, they have a naturally buttery flavor and a tender texture that makes them one of the most versatile heirloom beans in the pantry. Their broth is light-bodied, fresh, and herbal, and they pair beautifully with grassy olive oil, fresh herbs, and bright citrus, everything this salad is built around.

Chris Capaul's family has been farming California's Sacramento Valley since 1915, and he still has his great-grandfather's original horse-drawn bean cutter. As farms across the region grew bigger through consolidation, Chris held the line, growing his Baby Butter Beans in careful rotation with rice, a method that nurtures the soil naturally and produces beans far richer in flavor than anything you will find at the grocery store. Non-GMO, grown without glyphosate, and harvested fresh each fall.

In this salad the beans do something quietly brilliant. Tossed warm in the carrot top pesto, they soak up every bit of that bright, garlicky, herby sauce, turning a simple salad into something genuinely satisfying and substantial. Hearty enough for lunch, beautiful enough for a dinner table.

*A Note On Our Recipes:

Every recipe here was developed and tested using farm-fresh beans from Foodocracy and Primary Beans. Older beans, anything past a year in your pantry or beans from other sources may need more coaxing. Give them a soak and add extra cooking time, and they'll get there eventually.

SPRING BUTTER BEAN SALAD WITH CARROT RIBBONS AND CARROT PESTO

Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Whatsapp

Category

Salad

Servings

2-4

Creamy butter beans are enrobed in a pesto of carrot tops and basil for a no-waste salad that screams of spring. 

Author:

Lisa Riznikove

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry baby butter beans

  Add To Cart
• 6 large carrots washed and peeled
• butter lettuce or baby spinach washed and dried

CARROT TOP PESTO (MAKES EXTRA)

• 1 cup of carrot tops (washed and hard stems removed)
• A small handful of basil leaves (you want more carrot than basil)
• 1/3 cup pistachios or cashews
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil 

View Cart (0) Checkout

Directions

1. Cool the butter beans using the method of your choice up to 2 days ahead and store in their cooking liquid in the refrigerator. You want the beans to hold their shape so monitor them during cooking. I like these to be simply cooked with just salt and maybe a bay leaf, no other flavorings. I cooked mine in the instant pot for 25 minutes.
2. Use a mandolin or a vegetable peeler make ribbons of the carrots. I like using a mandolin better for this because you have more control over the thickness of the ribbons. Place the ribbons in cold water and set aside.
3. Put all of the ingredients of the pesto in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste. If it's a bit too thick add a bit more olive oil or a drizzle of water to get the right consistency.
4. Assemble the salad by first tossing the greens and beans in 2-4 tablespoons of the pesto, piling the carrots and beans on top of the greens and then drizzling with more pesto. Serve with a crusty bread to soak up extra pesto.

Recipe Note

Every recipe here was developed and tested using farm-fresh beans from Foodocracy and Primary Beans. Older beans, anything past a year in your pantry, or beans from other sources may need more coaxing. Give them a soak and add extra cooking time, and they'll get there eventually.