Three bean salad has been around at least since the ’70s because I can remember my mom making it when I was a kid. Here’s a modernization from Romney Steele, author of My Nepenthe and granddaughter of the founders of Nepenthe in Big Sur.
Make a bean salad and you’ll have something to eat for lunch or dinner all week. Whether you eat it at home or on the go, bean salad provides instant dressing, perfect for salad jars that you can assemble in advance—put the bean salad in the bottom, layer on chopped vegetables and top with salad greens. Add tuna to the bean layer for some added heartiness.
“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 recipe. 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.
Two of my favorites are made from fortified and aged wines, sherry from the Jerez region of Spain and Banyuls from southern France. When shopping, read labels and make sure you’re getting the real thing.
from the RiPE archives, 2017
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, canned, or frozen (thawed) green beans for fresh, blanch them first
- one 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed or home-cooked, about 2 cups (see How to Cook Beans on RiPE)
- one 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed or home-cooked red beans like Scarlet Runner, about 2 cups
- 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.)
