White Beans and Cherry Tomatoes Salad

I was having a bit of an existential crisis this week or was it midlife crises? I not quite sure, but it definitely was one of them. It involved a lot of self-doubt and thinking that I’m not good enough, a sense of doom, a feeling that somewhere somebody was conspiring against me.  That’s not normal right? Usually I shake those feelings easily but this last week this thing kept going on and on. So what could be better than talk things over with your best friend? That was what I did, called my BFF and started to spill the beans. Turns out she was feeling exactly the same, and we came to a conclusion that it was definitely a midlife crises.  We talked for more than one hour (God bless Skype) and in the end we were laughing and saying Hey! 40s are the new 30s, right?…Right? Well… it was a great talk. I felt much better; I just wish she were living closer by.

So lets talk food shall we? I got this little book called “Pesto, Tapenades and Spreads” by Stacey Printz  and I was looking for some different dressing for salads. Then I saw this tapenade recipe and decided to make a dressing of it. I used green olives instead of Kalamata olives; it was perfect for my white beans and cherry tomato salad.

White Beans and Cherry Tomatoes Salad

• 1 15-ounce cans of white beans, such as Great Northern or canelli beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• Lemon zest

For the Tapenade dressing:

• 1 cup of pitted green olives
• 3 anchovy fillets
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
• 1-tablespoon capers, drained
• ¾ cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until well combined. Top the salad with the lemon zest. Enjoy