Three Bean Salad

After handing the RV back over to Cindy, I returned to Baltimore to spend a couple days with my mom.  Plus I had dumped all our stuff from the RV onto my sisters dining room floor.  (Thanks Big Sister!)  Wanting to use up some of the groceries, I pulled out three cans of beans…black beans, cannellini beans, and garbanzo beans.  What do I do with that?!?

 Make Three Bean Salad of course!

You can use any three beans you like, this is what I had on hand.  But not a seasoned or sauced can of beans.  Gather equipment: can opener, large colander, large bowl, large spoon or rubber spatula, cutting board & knife, lid or plastic wrap to cover bowl.

1 – 15oz can of black beans

1 – 15oz can of cannellini (white kidney) beans

1 – 15oz can of garbanzo (chick peas) beans

1 medium yellow or red onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Salt to taste

Fresh ground pepper

Red wine vinegar

 

Open all three cans of beans and drain in the colander.  Rinse gently with water.  This removes the thicker broth and reduces the sodium.  Allow to drain while chopping onion and parsley.

The amount of time you spend dicing your onion will determine a couple things.  The larger the dice, the more interesting bite in your salad experience.  I like my onion pieces about 1/2 the size of the small bean.   The more you manipulate the onion, the more onion flavor will mix into the dish. Know someone who only hates onion when they see them?  Mince those puppies!  Know someone who dislikes the flavor of onion?  Dice them big enough so they can pick them out themselves.

Parsley has plenty of chlorophyll which is a natural breath deodorizer, so don’t skip the onion or garlic.  They are good for you too!

Empty drained beans into a large bowl that has a tight fitting lid or can be covered with plastic wrap.

Fold in diced onion, minced garlic, and chopped parsley.  Folding, using your spoon or spatula to lift from the bottom and flip the contents, will mix the ingredients well without tearing up the beans.  Eeeewww….mushed up beans would be gross in this dish.

Add 1/4 cup or so of olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh ground pepper.  Fold.  Taste.  Add a little salt.  Taste.  As the dish chills the flavors will marry so don’t over salt, more can always be added when serving.

Cover tightly and chill for a couple hours; serve with bottle of red wine vinegar.  Maggie, Mom and Big Sister liked it with the light tartness from the lemon juice.  Big Brother, Nephew, and I liked it with the addition of a couple dashes of red wine vinegar.  This dish is a good source of bean protein and works great as a main dish.

Our lunch used up a can of salmon, three cans of beans, dried parsley, frozen tuna, a bag of spatzle and helped to lighten my load back to Virginia Beach.  Thanks Mom!  It fed 5 of us with leftovers.  It was protein heavy, with a side of comfort food.  No worries though, I ate plenty of veggies as my dinner.