Lemon Cannellini Bean Salad

My garden is growing!

Despite the sweltering weather, Sacramento is treating my vegetable garden really well. I had an incident with a wilted plant the other day, but some water and less sunshine fixed it right up. My tomatoes have sprouted like crazy, nearly as tall as I am now, and my pepper plants are starting to bud out. Basil is taller, but I have no clue how to tell when basil is at it's peak growth period. All I know is that everything looks, and smells, awesome! Anyone else gardening now? What are you growing?

Gardening is something that I always associate with summer, because I have various family members who always garden. There are other things that I think of for summer, too, like frozen yogurt and anything bright. Both in color (hello blue flowered shorts) and flavor. Citrus, in particular, is a huge thing for me during summer. I've been making a ton of lemon water and squeezing limes on everything. I had some leftover lemons and I figured I should do something fun with them. My eating has been kinda wacky the last few weeks so I decided to make a salad...  without the greens.

I love bean-based or grain-based salads, in particular because they offer some variety and remind me that not everything that's healthy has to have dark greens. Don't get me wrong-- I love taking kale and arugula, maybe some mustard greens, and letting them take the stage for my dinner salad. But sometimes it's nice to just have a break from the norm. This salad combines hearty cannellini beans with celery for some crunch, and then some lemon and paprika jazz up the flavor even more.

As you can see in the photos, I use celery leaves. People really underestimate how much of the celery they can use and often only stick to the middle section, and it bothers me to no end to see how most people waste the slightly sweet, mild flavor of the celery tops. Don't throw those away, guys! They add the perfect amount of complexity to this dish. Which, by the way, is obnoxiously easy to make.

(Oooh, also! One serving of this gives you 59% of your iron, which is the most common nutritional deficiency anemia in the world.)

Lemon Cannellini Bean Salad
Serves 2         Serving Size: 0.75 cup

Ingredients:

• 1c. unsalted cannellini beans (rinsed and drained, if from can)
• 1/2c. celery tips/leaves, chopped
• Juice of 1/2 large lemon
• 1T olive oil
• 1/4t paprika
• 1/4t pepper

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to coat.

Nutrition Information:
Sodium: 81mg
Total Fat: 7g
         Saturated: 1g
         Mono: 5g
         Trans: 0g
Sugar: 2g
Protein: 8g
Calories: 186
Iron: 59%