If you are following a clean paleo diet (which means you follow the strictest paleo diet guidelines) you would not eat green beans. They’d be on the “do not fly” list. Green beans are in fact “beans” as their name denotes. Beans are legumes. The paleo diet does not include legumes.
I feel that green beans are more “pod” than “bean”, so I eat them. Does this mean I go crazy and eat one pound of green beans in a sitting? No. Do I eat green beans at every meal? No. Do I eat them when the craving strikes and not worry about it? Yes. You have to decide what works for you. As I’ve mentioned, I follow the paleo diet because eating gluten-free, dairy-free, legume-free dishes make me feel on top of the world. But that’s a lot of “-free”‘s! I also am smart enough to know that restricting and limiting food choices is hard and not sustainable. So while I chose to make and eat GDL (that’s gluten-free, dairy-free, legume-free for short) food, I know that that in itself is quite limiting. So within those constraints I don’t like to get too technical. Again, if you’re a die-hard clean paleo eater, I will make those distinctions in my recipes. For me, there’s nothing wrong with an occasional delicious recipe like this one!
For an even less strict approach to paleo, eating a primal diet includes full-fat dairy ingredients. Shown above, add some some feta cheese to the salad for a primal twist. To make a meal out of this recipe, we enjoyed this salad with Summertime Shrimp. It was a quick, easy and delicious week-night dinner.
- ½ lb green beans
- 5 radishes, sliced thin (I use a mandolin)
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Bring a medium size pot of water to a boil. In the meantime, trim the stem end of the green beans off.
- Place trimmed green beans in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain into a strainer and run cool water over them to stop the cooking process and keep them tender-crisp.
- In a medium bowl, add the cooked green beans and the rest of the ingredients listed. Toss to combine and serve.
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