Got cooked beans you need to use? Make a bean salad and you’ll have something to eat for lunch or dinner for a week! At serving time, a bed of undressed salad greens keeps the beans from rolling all over your plate and as an added plus, instant salad dressing!
“Taste your ingredients” is something I always say when I’m teaching a class, and it is especially true with condiments because they can make or break a whole dish. Use a thin, sour vinegar and your salad is going to taste thin and sour. Use a deliciously complex vinegar and your salad is going to taste deliciously complex.
I’ve been a fan of sherry vinegar for years. Made from “Sherry”, the fortified and aged wines of the Jerez region in Spain, sherry vinegar would make a great bean salad. Another great vinegar is from Banyuls in France. It is made from the fortified red wine of the region and is an instant upgrade wherever “red wine vinegar” is used. When buying, look at the label and make sure you’re getting authentic versions from the home countries.
Three Bean Salad
serves 6–8; adapted from "Garbanzo and Kidney Bean Salad" by Romney Steele in My Nepenthe
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar Banyuls (red) or Sanchez Romate for sherry
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped any or all: green onions, chives, fresh tarragon, fresh oregano
- 1 clove garlic, minced and mashed with 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) green beans
- one 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- one 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
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Add to a large bowl: vinegar, red onion, green onions/chives/herbs, garlic mashed with salt, sugar, and black pepper.
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Blanch green beans in a pot of boiling salted water for a minute or two, until crisp tender. Immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Remove from ice bath and dry on a clean kitchen towel. Add to bowl.
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Add the beans to the bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and combine gently. Let stand for at least an hour for flavors to coalesce. Refrigerate any leftovers. (Olive oil will harden when refrigerated, but don't fret. A few minutes at room temperature and it will return to its liquid self.)
