5 Easy Bean Salad Recipe Ideas

If you want to make a bean salad recipe using butterbeans, the following might be of interest. Combining butterbeans with green onion, fennel, cucumber and thyme, as well as juicy caramelized onions, this salad is full of contrasting flavors.

The dressing is made with honey, lemon and balsamic vinegar, offering sweetness as well as a tangy taste. This salad is nice served on a bed of romaine lettuce, although you can use a different kind of lettuce if you prefer or even omit it altogether.

Caramelized onions are soft and sweet and they are also easy to make. They should be a deep golden brown color but they should not be charred so turn down the heat if you think they might be at risk of burning.

Caramelized onions are beautiful in salad recipes. They are also good on top of pizza, added to pasta dishes or in sandwiches along with a slice of cheese and perhaps some chutney too.

This flavorful salad makes enough to feed four people as an appetizer, or six to eight as a side dish. It would also be good at lunchtime if you fancy something different from your usual sandwiches.

Feel free to throw in additional ingredients – anything you want to use up would work, so you might like to add a peeled, chopped apple (soak it in lemon juice else it will go brown), some grapefruit segments or even some cherry tomato halves.

This delicious salad pairs garbanzo beans with bell peppers, red onions and more. The parsley adds freshness and the Dijon mustard used in the dressing adds a touch of spice which suits the overall flavor. The resulting salad makes a satisfying lunch or a nice side dish.

Many people prefer to eat this as soon as it is made, since the oil-rich dressing can congeal in the refrigerator. If you do wish to make it in advance you can refrigerate it for up to two days but allow it to come to room temperature and give it a good stir before serving, to redistribute the dressing.

Garbanzo beans, which are also known as chickpeas, form the foundation of this delicious and simple salad recipe. Garbanzo beans are high in protein and one of the oldest cultivated vegetables (remains dating back 7500 years have been discovered in the Middle East). These beans can be cooked and added to stews or salads.

Canned garbanzo beans are popular, since they eliminate the need for cooking. You can grind garbanzo beans into a flour, called gram flour, which is frequently used in Indian recipes.

Garbanzo beans are also used to make hummus recipes. Some types of this bean can be popped and eaten like popcorn. Garbanzo beans in syrup are eaten as a dessert in the Philippines.

Dried garbanzo beans require an hour or two of cooking time but as soon as they are ready they must be served, else they will start to disintegrate. If you soak the beans for twelve to twenty four hours before cooking them, you will find that the cooking time decreases to around thirty minutes.

This deliciously different white bean salad recipe features tuna, red onion and not much else. Use dark tuna rather than light tuna, for a better taste. Dark tuna has a strong enough flavor to stand up to the white bean taste.

If you use light tuna meat, you will lose the flavor to the beans, so make sure you get the right one. This bright-tasting salad makes a change from tuna mayonnaise-based salad recipes and you will love the classic oil and vinegar dressing. Add a splash of lemon juice (or even some lemon zest) to the dressing to give it a tangy flavor if you like.

Most of the flavor here comes from the beans and tuna and the red onion adds a piquant touch. If you have tuna in spring water rather than tuna in oil, you will need some extra-virgin olive oil to make this recipe, since the oil from the tuna is used in the dressing. You might have enough already from the can – it depends what brand of tuna it is.

This simple bean salad recipe only calls for five ingredients plus seasoning. You might think that using so few ingredients is not going to produce a very special bean salad recipe but it actually tastes great.

It is best if you have a few hours to marinate the salad in the refrigerator. Just make it the way the recipe tells you and then leave the finished salad to chill in the refrigerator so the oil mixture can soak right through and the flavors can blend together nicely.

This very basic Tuscan bean salad recipe is made with a variety of different beans, as well as corn, fresh herbs, sundried tomatoes, anchovy paste and more, for a full-flavored salad which is reminiscent of the Mediterranean.

Dried beans are healthier and cheaper than canned beans but they usually require a long soaking and cooking time which some people do not have. In the height of summer it is also nice not to have to turn the stove on to cook beans for hours, so let canned beans come to the rescue if you like. Just make sure you drain and rinse them well.

You might wonder what chiffonade-cut basil means and this is very easy to make. Basically you need long, thin strips of basil for this bean salad recipe. The easiest way to do this is to roll all the leaves together in a cigar shape.

Then, using a sharp knife, cut diagonally across the cigar shape to make slices. Each slice will open out and you will have lots of long, thin strips. This is far quicker than slicing each leaf individually and rolling them up ensures they stay in place so you can cut them properly without missing any bits.

This bean salad recipe is very easy to prepare because all you have to do is mix everything together, taste and season it. You do not have to marinate this recipe or leave it in the refrigerator for the flavors to blend if you do not want to, although some people think this improves the flavor.

You can make this up to two days ahead if you want to. Just give it a good stir before you serve it, to redistribute the dressing and freshen up the flavor a little.

This delicious 4 bean salad recipe combines kidney beans, cannellini beans, garbanzo beans and green beans for a colorful and flavorful result.

If you want to use fresh green beans rather than canned ones, that is fine. Just simmer them in salted water for a few minutes until they are crisp-tender, then drain them and let them cool a bit.

The garlic and lemon juice dressing is tangy and delicious and goes beautifully with the bean mixture. This is not a complicated bean salad recipe at all.

Some bean salads feature vegetables, herbs and other ingredients but this one sticks with the four kinds of beans plus the dressing, to keep the flavors clean and simple.

It is best to make this one in advance and leave it in the refrigerator for a few hours to let the beans soak up the dressing. This really boosts the overall flavor and you will be glad you let it marinate.

Beans often feature in hot dishes such as chili con carne or bean stew recipes. They are also popular with vegetarians. Whether or not you are a vegetarian, you will find that a bean salad recipe makes a great lunch, appetizer or side dish.

You can also serve such a recipe for the main course. There are many different recipes for bean salad so you can mix and match components from different ones (perhaps the salad from one and the dressing from another) to achieve the perfect combination.