cannellini bean salad with lemon and cilantro

Ever since my semester ended last week, I've been doing what Adam and I call 'wifing' (said, of course, with tongue-in-cheek amusement. Our sense of humour isn't always politically correct). While he goes off to work, I do all kinds of fun stuff like cleaning. Really, I've been doing more cooking and baking than cleaning. I've also been doing a lot of reading, researching, blogging, tweeting... It's been a blast. I can't remember ever enjoying myself so much! When I was slogging through my Bachelor's degree, I only found this level of relaxation in the days rolling up to the new semester.

I took my lovely and amazing cousin out to Westmount today to stop by our favourite used bookstore. Of course, this also necessitated a visit to Le Fournil, the second most delicious bakery in the city (the first being Fous Desserts, where they make the most ridiculous almond croissants known to man). By the time we were headed home, I realised that the house was still in the same state of absolute horror that it was when I left in the morning (think scenes from The Walking Dead) and I had barely enough time to get supper on the table and get things under control (thanks in part to the above-mentioned lovely and amazing cousin!).

Supper involved some Mediterranean baked vegetables in tomato sauce (called briam, but of course, my mother has been calling it biryani for years. Once she gets something like this into her head, there's no changing it. Like Powergade). We needed a little extra boost of protein, so I whipped up this bean salad really quickly as a side. It was simple and flavourful, but it did require a bit of time sitting in the dressing for the beans to absorb the flavours. So make this one at least a half hour in advance if you can. Also - test as you go, but go a little heavier on the pepper in this one. It went really nicely with everything else and, to me, it was an integral flavour in the salad.

This makes a relatively small amount - pretty much one-can-of-beans-worth. But that was all we needed. Adjust as necessary.

cannellini bean salad with lemon and cilantro

1 can cannellini beans (398 ml), drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons of olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 stalk of a green onion, chopped (probably about 2 heaped tablespoons? my guess)
2 heaped tablespoons chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

• In a small bowl, drizzle olive oil over beans and season with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl and taste for seasoning. The inside of the beans will still just taste like beans at this stage - so let this sit for at least half an hour before continuing.
• After marinating, add green onion and cilantro. Toss and serve. Done!