This luscious tomato and green bean salad is just a riot of color and juicy summertime produce side-dish mayhem! It is so simple to make and is a celebration of great ingredients: summer fresh tomatoes at their peak of freshness, garden-fresh green beans and crumbled fresh goat cheese! Add a generous glug of extra-virgin olive oil and a scatter of herbs and you have summer on a platter! Delish.

Tomato and Green Bean Salad with goat cheese on a serving platter

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Why We Love This Recipe For Tomato Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese

This luscious platter of garden fresh tomatoes and green beans speaks for itself. It is the sister recipe to our Simple Tomato Salad. Served as a simple composed salad. There is so much freshness, and not to mention, so many different colors. I am so in love with it for its simple summertime perfection and I am fairly positive you will love it too.

After slicing all different colors of tomatoes, I piled on some lightly steamed, garden-fresh green beans and chopped fresh herbs. I found some fresh basil microgreens and sprinkled them on as well.

I also drizzled on a wee bit of red wine vinegar for acidity and a generous glug of extra-virgin olive oil. Then I topped the salad with crumbled fresh goat cheese. Oh my!

One of the main attractions to this dish (in my opinion) is that it’s super versatile. You could easily make it for a casual weeknight dinner, or you could make it for guests. It feels, looks and tastes fancy without requiring much time.

Want More Tomato Recipes?

Tomato and Green Bean Salad with goat cheese and herbs sprinkled over top

Key Ingredients For This Recipe

Green beans

You can use any kind of green bean you’d like. Some options are string beans, wax beans or haricot vert. They should be bright green (not light green or borderline yellow) and firm.

Tomatoes

Look for ripe slicing tomatoes such as beefsteak, brandywine or ugly ripe. Yellow tomatoes or heirloom green tomatoes are great to add contrasting colors.

Mixed herbs

My favorite blend of mixed herbs for this recipe is a combination of dill, basil, tarragon and chervil. Don’t worry if you don’t have (or can’t find) them all. You can just add more of one of them instead.

Goat cheese

Fresh crumbled goat cheese (chèvre) adds a nice tangy, salty and creamy component to this dish. If you have picky eaters at the table you can leave it off and serve it on the side instead.

Additional Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons red or white wine vinegar
  • Morton Celtic Sea Salt, to taste
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste
Tomato Green Bean Salad on a serving platter

Step-by-Step Instructions to Make This Tomato Green Bean Salad

Step 1: Steam green beans

Bring an inch of water to a boil in a medium saucepan fitted with a steamer attachment over high heat. Set a bowl of ice water next to the stove. Add beans, cover and steam until crisp tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove beans and plunge into the ice water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

Step 2: Slice tomatoes & assemble

Slice tomatoes and arrange in a circle on a large platter leaving space in the center. Pile the green beans in the center. Drizzle the oil and vinegar over the beans and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with herbs and goat cheese.

FAQs and Expert Tips

Can this tomato green bean salad be made ahead?

Although you could technically cook and blanch the green beans a few hours before I really recommend making it right before serving. But since it doesn’t require much prep (or cook) time, that shouldn’t be much of a problem!

How do you make this recipe vegan?

You can either omit the goat cheese completely or just use your favorite creamy vegan goat or feta substitute.

What does plunging green beans in ice water do?

This process is called blanching, and it’s commonly done with vegetables to keep them crispy and bright green. Here, it shocks the green beans and keeps them from cooking more and getting soggy. Essentially it just stops the cooking process.

Tomato Green Bean Salad on a serving platter on a table

More Green Bean Recipes to Try

Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!

Happy Cooking! ~Katie

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This luscious tomato and green bean salad from Healthy Seasonal Recipes is is so simple to make and is the perfect summer side dish.

Tomato Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 5 reviews

  • Author: Katie
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
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Description

We’ve taken two stars of the summer produce bounty and paired them up in a winning, and effortless hot-weather side dish. Choose whichever bush beans you like: haricot vert, wax beans or simply green string beans. Then steam them only until they are crisp-tender. Then pile them atop a carnival of sliced tomatoes. All that is needed to bring out their best is a generous splash of olive oil, fresh goat cheese, black pepper and garden fresh herbs.

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 4 cups trimmed bush beans such as string beans, wax beans or haricot vert
  • 4 slicing tomatoes
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons red or white wine vinegar
  • Morton Celtic Sea Salt, to taste
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 3 tablespoons mixed chopped herbs such as dill, basil, tarragon and chervil
  • 4 ounces fresh goat cheese (chevre), crumbled

Instructions

  1. Bring an inch of water to a boil in a medium saucepan fitted with a steamer attachment over high heat. Set a bowl of ice water next to the stove. Add beans, cover and steam until crisp tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove beans and plunge into the ice water. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.
  2. Slice tomatoes and arrange in a circle on a large platter leaving space in the center. Pile the green beans in the center. Drizzle the oil and vinegar over the beans and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with herbs and goat cheese.

Notes

Why dunk green beans in ice water:

This process is called blanching, and it’s commonly done with vegetables to keep them crispy and bright green. Here, it shocks the green beans and keeps them from cooking more and getting soggy. Essentially it just stops the cooking process.

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 5 minutes
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Method: Stove Top
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1/6 batch
  • Calories: 153
  • Sugar: 5 grams
  • Fat: 11 grams
  • Carbohydrates: 13 grams
  • Fiber: 3 grams
  • Protein: 5 grams

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