Simple and Delicious Bean Salad

I love to eat healthy but I’m often tight on time or, to be honest, kind of lazy to chop up a whole bunch of ingredients to make myself a healthy salad or meal every day. It happens to all of us! Especially, at lunch time. I am constantly looking for easy, ready to go, food that I can throw together to get a tasty and satisfying meals. Enter the simple and delicious bean salad. It’s tangy, zesty, kinda sweet, fresh and crunchy! Make it once and enjoy for the next few days!

There are so many good-for-you ingredients in this salad, that we could rename it “The Mixed Bean Detox Salad”. It includes beans (of course), you can use cooked or canned, fresh parsley, crunchy celery, anti-inflammatory garlic and red onion, carrots, lemon, olive oil and the list goes on.

This salad is inspired by the well-known middle-eastern tabbouleh salad. Hence why it has tons of parsley (curly, Italian or curly), lemon, garlic and mint. I wanted to balance the tanginess of the red wine vinegar and lemon by adding some grated carrot. The grated carrot adds a touch of sweetness, an added crunch element and some more detoxing power. I love a complex salad, that has many complementary flavours and colours.

This salad is so versatile and the perfect make ahead meal or side. It is vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. You can use whatever beans you have on hand. In the pictures, I cooked up black beans. But you can easily swap them out for chickpeas, cannellini beans, red beans, or for some other mixed beans – home cooked or canned. If you will be cooking your beans, please take a look at how I like to cook my beans to minimize bloat and discomfort.

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How to make this salad

Step 1: Chop, chop, chop

After you have washed/rinsed your parsley & celery, start by finely chopping most of your ingredients. Finely chop your parsley, celery, red onion, garlic and mint (if using fresh). You can also grate your carrots at this point as well.

Step 2: Combine your ingredients

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients you just finished chopping. Add the canned or cooked beans (see here, how to cook your beans to minimize bloat),

Step 3: Make the dressing

In a small bowl or jar, mix olive oil, red wine vinegar, zest and juice of the lemons, garlic powder, onion powder, dried mint (if you aren’t using fresh mint) and salt and pepper. You can alternatively add all these ingredients directly into the large bowl and toss everything. But if you want to ensure your dressing is well mixed, feel free to mix your dressing separately.

Step 4: Mix everything together

Add your dressing to the large bowl and toss all your ingredients together. Refrigerate for at least an hour to allow for all the flavours to blend in with one another. Store in the fridge, in an air tight container, for up to a week.

My tips for making the best bean salad

• When using canned beans, make sure you drain the liquid and rinse your beans under cold water, using a colander. Doing this will likely diminish the bloating factor from your beans and will prevent your salad from getting soggy.
• Add fresh herbs to your salad. Beans can be pretty bland on their own, so adding some fresh herbs will liven up your salad.
• Add some crunch, for some contrasting textures. In this salad, I used crunchy celery, red onion and carrots but you could also use red or orange bell pepper, cucumber, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, etc.
• Chill your salad in the fridge for at least an hour. This gives all the flavours a chance to really blend and enhance each other.
• Store in the fridge, in an air tight container and eat your salad within 5-6 days to maximize on the freshness of the ingredients.   

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