Mixed Bean Salad

Today was one of *those* days.  My best intentions to get up and run at 4.30am were scuppered by a night of interrupted sleep.  So my plan to treat myself to something lovely for tea went by-the-by as the run was moved to this evening, meaning I had to re-research a recipe quick-smart.

I should've known it wasn't going to be the loveliest of days when I volunteered (read ever-so-slightly-co-erced) into doing something that wasn't my responsibility at another of our sites.  This particular site isn't far away from my main base, but you might as well be in the back of beyond.  It's a whole other hostile climate down there.  I do mean the weather of course - cold, wet and freezing on a ridiculously flat and exposed landscape is just not fun.

And the local diet is based on whatever past-its-sell-by-date fayre happens to be left in the vending machine.  So a quick lunch recipe seemed to be the solution.

Thumbing through my recipe books whilst juggling my hairbrush and eyeliner, I found a recipe for mixed bean salad - great idea to use up the leftover beans from the soup I made on Monday.

Lunch time!

The book is something like the Barbecue Summer Bible or 101 Barbecue Recipes or something like that.  One of those books that look like a really good bargain in the supermarket and then just sit there gathering dust as day after day after day it rains and then just when you pack all the garden stuff away, out pops the sun and you just can't be bothered to go to all the faff of barbecuing and head for a pub lunch instead.  Well that's what happens in our house (mostly because the husband has a bit of a fire phobia!)

Really simple recipe that you can just throw together with the contents of the fridge.  I just had enough for one portion but it was filling and felt super-healthy, even with the addition of some feta that wasn't in the original recipe.

Also, having a selection of Garden Gourmet herb tubes in the fridge is proving a real boon for dishes like this.  No more need half-dead 'Living Herbs' to adorn my window-sill in winter months.

Serves 4 as a side dish

400g tin mixed pulses
1/4 cucumber diced
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced (I rarely have fresh tomatoes as I don't like the slimy middle so used red pepper instead)
100g feta cubed
2tbsp oil
juice of half a lemon
1tbsp fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2-3 garlic cloves minced

Mix it all together.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Serve.  Simples!

Well the book was a bit more long-winded than that, but am now too tired to copy it out!