My boyfriend is a leftovers vacuum, happily breaking into a container straight from the fridge and downing its contents, whatever they happen to be. But not me. While I do my best to turn lingering vegetables or meaty bits into a frittata or rice bowl, I prefer my food fresh.
This recipe is a great exception — one I developed to keep leftovers around on purpose.
Featuring marinated white beans and asparagus, it gets better as it sits, for up to a few days, its flavors melding together into one glorious, silky salad.
You can certainly enjoy it on the evening-of; I promise it’s delicious that way (and depending on how hungry you are, you might even have some remaining, too). But time is an enhancer here. With this in mind, I often double the recipe, eating it as dinner the first night and saving the rest to use as a side for another meal or two later in the week. (It’s particularly lovely with a slow-roasted filet of fish, or tossed with lettuce and some shredded chicken.)
To start, drain and rinse 1 15-ounce can of white beans. (I most often keep cannellini in my pantry, but butter beans, navy beans, and great northern beans work well, too.) They’re mild and buttery, a perfect backdrop for the tangy dressing.
As the beans sit and air-dry for a bit, blanch 1 bunch of asparagus. This is a seasonal choice, but almost any sturdy vegetable will work, which is an especially exciting prospect given what will be popping up at the market from now until October: heirloom peppers, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, and much more.
Trim the ends of the asparagus. You can use the natural snapping point, or simply line up the stalks and cut off about two inches from the bottom — my preference so as not to lose any precious green. Chop the stalks into 1-inch pieces if they’re fat (another preference, so that they more closely mimic the shape of the beans) or slightly longer pieces if they’re thin.
Fill a two-quart saucepan with water, add a very generous couple of pinches of kosher salt and set it over high heat until it boils. Toss in the asparagus.
If you’re wary of winding up with salty asparagus, consider Samin Nosrat’s advice to salt water for blanching until it’s as salty as your memory of the sea. “You might flinch upon seeing how much salt this takes,” she writes in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, “but remember, most of the salt ends up going down the drain. The goal is to create a salty enough environment to allow the salt to diffuse throughout the ingredient during the time it spends in the water.”
In this case, that’s two minutes, until the asparagus are bright green and just-tender.
While the asparagus is blanching, set up an ice water bath in a medium bowl. As soon as the asparagus is done, use a spider to transfer the pieces into the ice bath. Leave them for a minute to stop cooking and cool down, then drain the water.
Now prep the rest of your mix-ins. Finely chop 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano. (You can sub in dried if that’s all you have on hand, cutting the amount in half.) Thinly slice 1 small shallot. Finally, cut ¼ cup of Castelvetrano olives into quarters, roughly mimicking the size of the beans. (I like to make my life easier by buying them pitted for cooking.) Put the olives into the measuring cup as you’re cutting them; if you portion them out whole, you won’t get enough.
Now, in a medium bowl, make your dressing. Whisk together 3 tablespoons of white wine or white balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and a ¼ cup of olive oil. Any brand will work, but if you have a really good bottle you’ve been saving — one you think is especially delicious raw — now is a great time to use it. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Add the rest of your ingredients and toss gently to coat, seasoning with more kosher salt and black pepper to taste. Let the salad sit for at least ten minutes so the flavors come together.
As you get ready to eat, crumble two ounces of feta cheese and sprinkle it over the top of the salad. Then heat a couple glugs of olive oil in a small, heavy-bottomed skillet set over medium heat. Cut a thick slice of bread and toast both sides in the oil until golden brown. Use it as a base for generous piles of beans and to sop up the dressing.
If you’re making the dish to eat at another time or have extra, pack the contents into a storage container, stick it in the fridge, and thank me later.
Emma Wartzman is the kitchen and dining writer at New York Magazine’s the Strategist.
Additional photo illustration credits: Emma Wartzman
