Simple summer side dishes: tomatoes and beans from your garden

I wrote recently about a Sunday dinner I created using chicken skewered on rosemary sprigs as a main dish.

To accompany that and a salmon I made for the same meal, I went with simple side dishes that included grilled zucchini, tomato slices with basil and olive oil, and green beans freshly picked from my garden and cooked in olive oil and spices.

The fresh beans were so flavorful, tasting them reminded me why I plant  a vegetable garden each summer. I went with olive oil on them this time but have also made beans with a a balsamic vinegar glaze that works quite well to add some sweetness to the dish.

The tomatoes were not from the garden but they were the vine-ripened variety. The basil was from a basil plant we’ve been growing, again so much more flavorful than buying basil at a store.

Simple and delicious, along with salt-free as these are, has been my flavor mantra since my angioplasty two years ago, both of these sides fit that mold perfectly.

John