This 3 bean salad is a filling, protein rich versatile dish! And most importantly super effordable and easy to put together just using your basic pantry ingredients.
It is a quintessential side dish at any potlucks or barbecues, but I also love it as a simple meatless mexican dish.
Just wrap it in a corn tortilla, add avocados and salsa and you have amazing vegetarian tacos for lunch. I also can scoop it with corn chips all day long for a healthy nutritious snack.
There are so many variations of this popular salad. I use kidney beans, garbanzos and cannellinies. Lots of recipes call for canned green beans instead of cannellini but I love their silky texture and nutty flavor. And truly never tasted a canned green bean I liked! This is completely summer recipe. There are many versions of it, you can create generally updated homecooked salad, adding cooked tuna chilled in refrigerator, packed parmesan. It would be basically the same, but a little more nutritious and even more taste.
Garbanzo beans have a satisfiing nutty flavor but a slightly grainy texture that makes a great contrast with other ingredients in this salad.
Crunchy peppers and red onions balance out the soft creamy beans. It is truly a great pairing of ingredients. You can use red, green or yellow papers. Or all of them for a beautiful bouquet of fresh bright colors.
I like to add cup of pickled chopped onion soaked in marinade, teaspoon granulated salt, basil, rinsed cut celery and sparkle with black pepper, drained fennel.
Parsley brings in an unbeatable freshness and rosemary adds a fragrant earthy flavor. I love using fresh herbs in all of my salads. Just a touch adds a great depth of flavor to any basic ingredient.
The salad is more tangy and acidic when dressed with several spoons of balsamic vinegar.
This salad is served cold, and the longer it sits in the fridge the better it tastes, letting all the flavors come together. The traditional dressing for the salad is sweet and sour vinaigrette made with olive oil, apple cider vinegar and sugar. And you can whisk it together in no time at all! This salad is a winner all around!
I serve the salad in large bowl. It is great for picnic. Just it chill in fridge first, and it will become kind of your picnics hit.