Nature gives us what we need when we need it, and we all need this salad in late summer.
Late-summer is peak produce season here in Colorado. All of the fruits of labor come to fruition in a colorful, flavorful and full explosion of joy and bounty from our farms. It’s one of the most glorious times to cook, and eat, all year.
In many other seasons, we have one or two ingredients that dominate the harvest; greens, radishes, carrots, peas, asparagus. These gorgeous characters get their own main events and dishes simply because there aren’t any other notable vegetable or fruit personalities to share the stage with. But in the late summer, there are so MANY unique and incredible ingredients to choose them that they start mixing and mingling in all sorts of creative ways in my kitchen, just to put to good use the abundance I bring home from my market missions. And this Late Summer Corn, Tomato + Dragon Bean Salad is all that.
Dragon tongue beans (dragon beans) are gorgeous heirloom beans. Our grandparents refer to them as bush beans, (while green beans are called pole beans.) They’re striped like the hide of a mythical creature’s with pale yellow skin splashed with wild purple streaks. They’re Dutch in origin, but gardeners and chefs everywhere swoon over them because they look like art and taste like summer. When you cook them, they lose their stripes but gain a buttery, balanced flavor that goes well in so many things this time of year.
There are myriad reasons to shift ourselves into a way of eating that aligns with the seasons. Among them that our foods will taste better, be fresher and more nutritious. Further, our bodies require information about our surroundings and this comes from our food. And, last but not least, the natural world provides us with the nourishment, ingredients and substances our bodies need to balance in any given season. The reason not to eat raw salads in the winter, or apples in the summer is quite simply that these things don’t provide what our bodies need in those moments. But a corn, tomato and dragon bean salad is exactly what our systems need in this moment.
A late-summer salad of corn, tomatoes, and dragon tongue beans is basically Ayurveda in a bowl. Sweet corn offers grounding, nourishing sweetness that pacifies Vata as the winds of autumn begin to stir. Juicy, tomatoes, with the heating seeds removed are cooling and can help to temper Pitta’s late-summer heat while keeping digestion light. And dragon tongue beans—moist, sweet, and slightly astringent—stabilize Kapha without dulling agni. Together, this incredible salad reflects the harvest season: balancing all three doshas by combining earthiness, juiciness, and lightness in a way that keeps the body steady as we transition from fiery summer into breezier fall.
First, ask your farmer if they’re growing them. Chances are, they’re not far away. Suppose you aren’t going to your farmer’s market. In that case, you’re probably missing out on these beans as they’re unlikely to be in a grocery store because heirloom varieties, such as this bean, simply aren’t grown at scale in the United States and in many nations around the world.
And, if you can’t find them you could always use green beans. The reason to use dragon tongue beans INSTEAD of green beans is simply a matter of biodiversity. By eating 30 different plant foods each week, we support our healthy microbiome, and by narrowing that number we simply don’t have the same resilience when it comes to gut health. But the recipe police aren’t going to arrest you (or your farmers) if these aren’t an ingredient leaping off the market tables or grocery shelves where you live.
…is such a lovely addition to pretty much anything we’re eating in the summer. I occasionally make a double batch of this salad and we enjoy a good proportion of it with grilled or roasted chicken, or coconut tilapia. I often omit the beans in the main preparation and add them later, simply because I don’t typically mix proteins for digestive health. But the beans are easy to add later and they make the salad a meal when mixed with greens, flatbread or even grain bowls for a couple of days after the main event.
As mentioned above, if you aren’t going to your farmer’s market you’re unlikely to find dragon tongue beans. You can use green beans instead for this recipe, but the flavor profile will be a bit different. Let this be a great excuse to get yourself to the market and ask for an ingredient your grandmother would be proud to know has made it into your kitchen.
Don’t be shy when amping this one. Fresh cheese like chevré or feta would be excellent tossed in here, as would flaked toasted coconut. Serve it with animal proteins or mix it with beans to make it a meal, and use it to zhoosh up grain bowls, pastas anything you can think of. Lastly, I love mint here but a little shower of cilantro or fresh arugula would be exceptional. Play with flavors, the things you find growing near you in this moment!
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