Are you searching for the ultimate easy and elegant side dish to grace your holiday table? A stunning, jewel-toned salad so vibrant, so packed with fresh flavor, and so unbelievably simple to make, it will steal the show? This incredible, from-scratch Green Bean and Orange Salad is that perfect recipe. We’re talking perfectly crisp-tender green beans, juicy, sweet orange segments, and crunchy pistachios, all tossed with peppery frisée in a sophisticated sherry-mustard vinaigrette.
This isn’t just another green bean recipe; it’s your definitive guide to a show-stopping side that looks and tastes like it came from a gourmet restaurant but comes together in just about 30 minutes. We’ll show you the simple but crucial professional secrets to perfectly cooked green beans that are never mushy and a beautifully balanced dressing. This is a satisfying, refreshing, and deeply impressive dish that is perfect for your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter feast.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Recipe Overview: The Ultimate Easy & Elegant Holiday Side Dish
What makes this Green Bean and Orange Salad so spectacularly delicious is its incredible combination of textures and its perfectly balanced, bright and savory flavors. This recipe is a masterpiece of simple, elegant cooking. The star of the show is fresh, vibrant green beans, which are quickly blanched to a perfect, crisp-tender texture while retaining their gorgeous green color. The salad is a beautiful medley of sweet, juicy orange segments, crunchy, toasted pistachios, and slightly bitter, frilly frisée. The entire creation is brought together with a classic, from-scratch sherry-dijon vinaigrette, made extra flavorful by mellowing the shallots in the dressing.
| Metric | Time / Level |
| Total Time | 45 minutes |
| Active Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Difficulty Level | Easy |
| Servings | 6-8 |
The Flavors of the Season: The Essential Ingredients
This iconic dish uses a handful of high-quality, simple ingredients to create its signature rich and vibrant flavor.
- The Green Beans: For the best result, look for fresh, bright green, and slender green beans. Thinner beans, sometimes called haricots verts, are a fantastic choice as they are extra tender.
- The Oranges: The secret to the stunning, jewel-like appearance! Sweet, juicy navel or Cara Cara oranges are perfect.
- The Frisée: Frisée is a member of the chicory family with frilly, slightly bitter leaves. Its peppery flavor and beautiful texture are the perfect, sophisticated counterpoint to the sweet oranges and green beans.
- The Sherry Vinaigrette:
- Sherry Vinegar: This is a brilliant, sophisticated choice for a simple vinaigrette. It has a much more complex, nutty, and less sharp flavor than a regular red or white wine vinegar, which perfectly complements the other ingredients.
- The Pistachios: For the best, most intense, and nuttiest flavor, it is highly recommended to toast your pistachios before you chop and add them to the dish.
The Chef’s Secrets: The Masterclass for a Perfect Salad
This recipe uses two simple but brilliant professional techniques that guarantee a flawless, impressive result.
- The Blanch & Shock: The number one, restaurant-quality secret to green beans that are perfectly crisp-tender and a vibrant green is to “blanch and shock” them. By cooking the beans for just a few minutes in a large pot of heavily salted, boiling water (blanching), you are perfectly seasoning them and cooking them through. By immediately transferring them to a bowl of ice water (shocking), you are instantly stopping the cooking process. This is the foolproof key that locks in that beautiful, bright green color and guarantees your beans will never be limp, sad, or mushy.
- The Art of the Suprême: The secret to a truly elegant citrus salad is to “suprême” or segment your oranges. This simple technique involves cutting away all the peel and the bitter, white pith, and then carefully slicing out the individual segments from between the membranes. This leaves you with beautiful, jewel-like pieces of pure fruit that are a joy to eat.
Step-by-Step to the Best Green Bean and Orange Salad
This elegant, festive side dish is a joy to prepare.
Part 1: The Blanch & Shock for Perfect Green Beans
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water ready nearby.
Add your 1 1/2 pounds of trimmed green beans to the boiling water and cook for just 2 minutes, until they are crisp-tender and a vibrant green.
Immediately use a slotted spoon or tongs to transfer the green beans to the ice water bath for about 30 seconds to stop the cooking. Drain the green beans well and pat them completely dry.
Part 2: The Art of the Sherry Vinaigrette and Final Assembly
Step 1: In a large bowl, whisk together your 2 tablespoons each of sherry vinegar and orange juice, the 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and the 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.Step 2: While whisking continuously, slowly drizzle in your 1/4 cup of olive oil to create a smooth emulsion.Step 3: Add your 1 thinly sliced shallot to the vinaigrette and let it sit for about 10 minutes. This will mellow the shallot’s sharp flavor.Step 4: To the bowl with the vinaigrette, add your blanched and dried green beans, your 2 heads of torn frisée, the segments of your 2 oranges, and the 1/3 cup of chopped toasted pistachios. Season with salt and pepper and gently toss everything together.
Serve immediately.
Green Bean and Orange Salad (An Easy & Elegant Recipe!)
A refreshing and elegant recipe for a Green Bean and Orange Salad, perfect as a side dish for a holiday meal. This simple, no-cook (mostly) salad features crisp-tender green beans that are blanched and then tossed with torn frisée lettuce, sweet orange segments, and crunchy toasted pistachios. The entire salad is brought together with a bright and tangy vinaigrette made from sherry vinegar, orange juice, and Dijon mustard, with thinly sliced shallots macerated in the dressing for a milder flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for boiling water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 heads frisée, torn
- Segments of 2 oranges
- 1/3 cup chopped toasted pistachios
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook 1 1/2 pounds of green beans in a large pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes, until crisp-tender.
- Drain the green beans and immediately transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and preserve their bright color. Once cooled, drain them again and pat them dry.
- Make the Vinaigrette: In a large serving bowl, whisk together the sherry vinegar, orange juice, dijon mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until emulsified.
- Add the thinly sliced shallot to the vinaigrette and let it sit for 10 minutes to macerate.
- To the bowl with the dressing, add the prepared green beans, the torn frisée, the orange segments, and the chopped toasted pistachios.
- Season with salt and pepper and toss everything together to combine. Serve immediately.
Notes
- This is a very quick and elegant side dish that is perfect for a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, or for a simple weeknight dinner.
- Blanching the green beans and then ‘shocking’ them in ice water is a key technique that keeps them perfectly crisp-tender and vibrant green.
- Letting the thinly sliced shallot sit in the vinaigrette for a few minutes helps to mellow its sharp flavor.
- This salad is best assembled just before serving to keep the frisée crisp.
What to Serve With Your Green Bean Salad
This beautiful and savory-sweet dish is a fantastic and incredibly versatile side dish. It is the perfect accompaniment to almost any holiday or special occasion main course.
- Holiday Roasts: It is an absolute must-have alongside a classic Roasted Turkey, a Glazed Ham, or a beautiful Prime Rib.
- Weeknight Dinners: It is also the perfect, elegant side for a simple roasted chicken or some pan-seared fish, like salmon or halibut.
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Storage and Make-Ahead Tips
- Make-Ahead: This is the perfect make-ahead holiday side dish! You can prepare all the components up to a day in advance. The green beans can be blanched, the vinaigrette can be made, the pistachios can be toasted, and the oranges can be segmented. Store everything in separate, airtight containers in the refrigerator.
- Storage: For the best, freshest result with crisp frisée, it is highly recommended to assemble the entire salad just before you plan to serve it.
Frequently Asked questions (FAQs)
Q1: What is the absolute, number one secret to green beans that are bright green and not mushy?
The secret is to blanch and shock them! Boiling them for just a couple of minutes cooks them to a perfect crisp-tender, and plunging them immediately into an ice bath stops the cooking process instantly, which is the key that locks in their beautiful, vibrant color and prevents them from becoming soft and overcooked.
Q2: Can I make this side dish ahead of time for a holiday dinner?
Yes, absolutely! The best method is to prepare all your individual components—the blanched green beans, the vinaigrette, the toasted nuts, and the segmented oranges—a day in advance. Then, the final assembly will take just a few minutes right before your dinner.
Q3: What is frisée and can I use a different kind of green?
Frisée is a type of chicory with frilly, lacy leaves and a pleasant, peppery bitterness. If you can’t find it, you can substitute it with other slightly bitter greens like escarole or radicchio, or for a milder salad, some fresh arugula or baby spinach.
Q4: Can I use a different kind of nut?
Yes! This classic salad would also be fantastic with other toasted nuts, like sliced almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
Q5: Can I roast the green beans instead of boiling them?
Of course! Roasting is another fantastic method that will result in a deeper, more caramelized flavor. Simply toss your trimmed green beans with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a hot, 400°F oven for about 15-20 minutes, until tender and slightly browned. Then, let them cool before tossing them with the other ingredients.