The ManicaPost
THREE bean salad is one of summer picnic foods. It’s comforting, protein-rich, and easy to put together quickly.
How do you dress this salad?
This three-bean salad is traditionally dressed with a sweet and sour dressing made with vinegar, oil, and sugar.
You can cut back the sugar if you want, but I wouldn’t cut it out completely, or the dressing will be too acidic.
Once you make the salad, chill it in the refrigerator for several hours to allow the dressing to soak into the beans, and the flavours to meld.
Olive oil is key to the dressing and will coagulate when chilled.
So to serve, remove the bean salad from the refrigerator and let it come close to room temperature.
Generally, cooked beans will last three to four days in the refrigerator, but since this salad is basically “pickled” by the vinegar in the dressing, it may last longer.
Prep the onion first. Soak the chopped onion in a small bowl of water to take the edge off the onion while you prep the other ingredients.
Ingredients:
For the salad:
Carrots (blanched)
Green beans blanche
Onion
Chicken spice
Tomato sauce
Chutney
Butter beans
Red kidney beans
Paprika
2 celery stalks, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 cup loosely packed, fresh, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon fresh finely chopped rosemary
For the dressing:
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Make the salad:
In a large bowl, mix the three different types of beans, the celery, onion (drained of soaking water), parsley, and rosemary.
Make the dressing:
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, chutney, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Add the dressing to the beans.
Toss to coat.
Chill and serve:
Transfer the salad to the refrigerator for several hours, to allow the beans to soak up the flavour of the dressing.
Let it come close to room temperature to serve.
Now let’s talk about some of these ingredients, substitutions and additions.
It doesn’t matter what colour kidney beans you use.
Dark red, light red, whatever your preference is fine!
Shoot, you could even substitute in black beans or whatever canned bean you’ve got and it would probably still be tasty.
I like chopping up sweet pickles for my kidney bean salad because I like getting an actual bite of pickle in my salad.
Feel free to substitute sweet pickle relish instead and make things even easier.
The dressing.
You can use your preference.
I know a lot of people feel very strongly about this one.
Use what your taste buds like.
Whatever you use, it’s going to mix in with the egg yolks and will give the salad a dressing that has a taste similar to a deviled egg.
So I suggest using whatever you use to make your deviled eggs.
I like both, but I think Miracle Whip tastes the best in this salad.
Sometimes I also add about 1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese to this salad.
It makes a great addition. – Online.
