We like green beans especially the tiny French haricot verts kind, they are crunchy and bright. We are also frequent Brussels sprout consumers; they are one of my favorites.  With summer coming cooked veggies are less appealing so I decided to mix my green beans and Brussels sprouts together into coleslaw.

This was a great plan! I made simple coleslaw dressing not that different from what I might use on standard cabbage coleslaw.  The fresh crunchy Frenched green bean and shaved Brussels sprout coleslaw was prefect with some simple grilled pork tenderloins.

With the coleslaw dressing if you are not a mayo fan feel free to opt for Greek yogurt or miracle whip in its place, I know my mother will. Also if you like a sweet slaw toss in a little sugar, it’s your coleslaw.  I garnished the slaw with grated Parmesan cheese and salty sunflower seeds. The garnish was a last minute inspiration of mine and you could use almost anything your family likes: sesame seeds, crumbled blue cheese, or dried cranberries.  The only limits are your creativity and pantry.

Lastly the way you slice both the beans and sprouts is important. For the beans slice them into narrow strips along the diagonal, there is a tool for frenching beans you can buy but do any of us need another kitchen gadget?  If you buy nice tender haricot verts type beans it’s less important to truly French the beans. If you have big green beans you can use a vegetable peeler and get long strip more like a traditional Frenched beans, I say go for the little beans and chop away, simpler. To shave the Brussels sprouts and slice the onions use a mandolin if you have one or a large blade on a box grater. You could use a chef’s knife for both the onions and sprouts if you desire but this is coleslaw not penance so make it easy on yourself.

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Frenched Green Bean and Shaved Brussels Sprout Coleslaw

Ingredients

For the Slaw

• ½ cup of frenched green beans
• ¼ cup of shaved Brussels sprouts
• 1 small onion sliced very thin

For the Dressing

• The zest of one lemon and half its juice
• 2 tsp of rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp sour cream
• 1 tsp mayo
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Start by mixing all the ingredients together for the dressing. You can mix up the dressing the day before you make the slaw, it will only get better resting in the fridge.
2. Prep the veggies making sure not to lose a finger in the process. I opted to slice the green beans on the diagonal with a knife creating bite sized strips akin to what a Frenching tool produces, it was a little time consuming but was a nice texture. The onion and sprouts just got a quick run over the mandolin, easy.
3. Mix the salad and dressing together about 10-20 minutes before you will serve the coleslaw. Mix the dressing into the veggies bit by bit to be sure you don’t end up with your slaw swimming in too much dressing. Taste and adjust the flavors adding more salt, pepper or even sugar as needed. Serve as is or garnish with anything you want from nuts to cheese.