I watched Sohla make this recipe on New York Times like it was absolutely nothing and not at all groundbreaking. This is a raw green bean salad that uses lightly smashed green beans to cure in the fridge with salt to help the beans soften. I’m making a version inspired by green bean casserole tossed with the classic fried onions, but a parmesan dressing over it all. Taking a classic hot side dish and turning it into a cheesy cold salad. This salad has layers of tasty crunch with the green bean, cucumber, romaine, and fried onions. Serve up your green beans easier this year with this awesome groundbreaking new technique.

Green beans are one of the most delicious and refreshing vegetables to snack on. Typically when you eat a raw green bean it’s a little bitter due to how thick the green bean is. When you smash the vegetable it starts to breakdown further. Think of this process like bruising lemongrass or massaging kale leaves. We do this to not only make the vegetable more enjoyable to eat, but also for our bodies to help digest. Smashing the green beans this way is fun.

I made this for Thanksgiving and I really liked the original version that I’m adapting, but a vinaigrette with raw green beans isn’t enough to aid in that raw bean flavor. I thought a creamy parmesan dressing would help satisfy that rich creamy flavor you normally get from a green bean casserole and it works! To match the flavor of the raw green bean I added cucumber to aid in that extra fresh taste each bite gives you. Plus more crunch!

This salad was SO easy to prepare in advance and then assemble in minutes before dinner. I love to keep easy salads like this in my back pocket for when I have an adventurous group of eaters to feed. Turning a salad into something extravagant is my forte, so if you’re looking for something new you should definitely give this one a go.