This easy three bean salad is a healthy classic salad you can whip up in minutes. Packed with plant protein and fiber, it's made with fresh green beans and canned beans, then dressed in a quick, tangy homemade dressing. Perfect for summer picnics, potlucks, and parties, it pairs beautifully with burgers, ribs, or chicken. Want to switch it up? Turning this into a five-bean salad is a breeze, and there's lot more tasty options to customize.
Our favorite lunch spot on the spectacular California coastal area of Big Sur is Nepenthe restaurant. Visitors come from far and wide to enjoy their famous Ambrosia burger, sandwiches, salads, and soups (plus a great wine list). Alongside, you choose coleslaw or their easy classic three bean salad. I ordered the three bean salad with lunch and was reminded how good this super easy salad is. Here's my version of the Nepenthe three bean salad.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Takes just minutes to make.
- Delicious source of fiber and plant protein.
- Great along side of soup, burgers, ribs, and added to a green salad.
- Turn it into a 5 bean salad in a minute.
For another recipe with garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), try this kale salad with avocado, beans, and a creamy tahini dressing.
Three Bean Salad Ingredients
Three simple types of beans make a winning combination, and using canned beans and fresh green beans makes it easy.
For the Bean Salad
- Kidney beans: Buy the canned red kidney beans, either light red or dark red. Buy low sodium or no-sodium added beans so you control the salt.
- Garbanzo beans: Also called chickpeas, same as the sodium advice above.
- Green beans: I prefer the tender, slender French green beans called Haricot Vert. If you can't get them, use regular fresh green beans. If fresh beans are not available, use frozen whole green beans, or canned green beans.
For the French Vinaigrette
- Oil: Extra virgin olive oil provides the best flavor. Don't use vegetable oil, it adds no flavor.
- Vinegar: Red vine vinegar is traditional for a French vinaigrette, but you can use apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or champagne vinegar.
- Mustard: Creamy Dijon mustard is my go-to. It helps to emulsify the dressing a bit and gives it a bit of a kick plus great flavor.
Please see the recipe card for measurements.
For a hearty soup with white kidney beans (cannellini beans), make a pot of this Tuscan white bean soup.
Chef's tip on kidney beans: Dark red kidney beans or light red kidney beans? Light red kidney beans are a little softer in texture than dark red kidney beans, with well balanced flavor. Both have a firm texture and work in soups and salads such as this three bean salad. White kidney beans are called cannellini beans. Don't ever eat kidney beans raw as they are naturally toxic before cooking. Canned beans are cooked.
Substitutions and Variations
There are lots of fun ways to change this 3 bean salad up!
- Make it a 5 bean salad by adding either cannellini beans, black beans, great northern beans, navy beans, or lima beans.
- Change up the dressing with this easy homemade Italian vinaigrette or add some lemon juice.
- Add freshly chopped herbs like thyme or fresh parsley for color and flavor.
- Add corn kernels for color.
- Add chopped celery, finely red chopped onion or shallot, for more flavor and color. Chopped bell peppers are another good addition.
- Swap the green beans for yellow wax beans (yellow green beans).
- For cheese, add a tangy crumbled Greek feta.
- No fresh green beans? Use canned green beans, chopped.
Here's another super easy bean salad, my white bean salad, made with either canned beans or dried beans.
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How to Make Three Bean Salad
How to a Make French Vinaigrette
Here's simple tasty dressing for bean salad. Making a homemade vinaigrette is easy and skips additives you might get in a bottle. Add extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar a little Dijon mustard plus a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper to a jar and shake until smooth. This is a good basic tangy dressing for many salads, so make extra to use during the week.
Chef's tip for garlic: Adding a little garlic to dressings is delicious, but biting into raw garlic is not. For really fine garlic use one of my tricks: chop it finely then use the back of your chef's knife to smear it into a paste, zest it with a microplane zester, or use the garlic paste in a tube.
Serving Suggestions
Three bean salad is good alongside a cup of soup, as a side to many dishes such as grilled meats or roast chicken, and over fresh salad greens as an entree salad. I prefer it served at room temperature for more flavor, but it's good served cold too.
Meal Prep the Salad
To meal prep three bean salad, add ¾ of a cup of the bean salad to the bottom of a large glass jar or other airtight container. Top with chopped tomatoes and stuff full of salad greens. Pack vinaigrette for the greens separately so they stay crisp and add when ready to eat.
Good additions for a green salad are pitted black kalamata olives, crumbled feta cheese (if you enjoy dairy), chopped bell pepper, chopped celery or a little finely chopped red onion or shallot. Chopped fresh herbs are good too.
For more protein, add chopped leftover roast chicken breast.
Recipe FAQs
Three beans salad lasts 4-5 days in the refrigerator and it's best to store it without dressing. Add the dressing just before serving or a few hours before serving for the beans to soak up the flavor.
Three bean salad is higher in carbs when compared to a green salad, but you also get a good amount of plant protein and fiber in a serving. Plus you're talking healthy carbs, not refined carbs.
Bean salad is usually made with a combination of beans such as red kidney beans, white kidney beans (cannellini beans), green beans, yellow wax beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), pinto beans, or black beans and dressed with a vinaigrette dressing. Using a variety of beans keeps a bean salad colorful, flavorful, and easily made with what you have on hand.
More Bean Recipes
Beans are so versatile! Here are a few more recipes with beans for you to try. Of course this golden hummus with turmeric is always a great option.
⭐️Did you Make This?
If you make this three bean salad recipe, please comment and let me know. I enjoy hearing from you. Love it? Please give it a 5 star rating. They really help other readers.
📖 Recipe
Three Bean Salad
Equipment
- Small pot to blanch green beeans
Ingredients
Three Bean Salad
- 4 ounces fresh green beans I prefer the slender French green beans
- 1 15 ounce can red kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
French Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 small garlic clove finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
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Instructions
Ready the Beans
- Cook green beans: Set up an ice bath by filling a medium bowl half full of ice and cold water. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, adding 1 tablespoon salt. Add the green beans and boil for 5 minutes. Drain beans and immediately place them in the ice bath to stop the cooking process and keep them bright green. Chill until cold, about 5 minutes. Drain and dry the beans, dump the ice water, dry the bowl.
- Add the oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to the bowl and whisk smooth for the vinaigrette. Add the kidney beans and garbanzo beans to the bowl. Chop the green beans into approximately ½-inch pieces, add to the bowl. Toss to coat with the dressing and it's ready to serve.
P says
Sodium content in the salad and dressing?
Sally Cameron says
Hi Pebo. As much as you want to add. Just a pinch of salt will do. If you are sodium-free, just add a little pepper and skip the sea salt for the vinaigrette. Good thing is with sea salt, the flavor is so good, more "salty", that you need very little to season. For the beans, be sure to buy Eden Foods organic no salt added kidney and garbanzo beans. Find them at health oriented markets and online. I get mine at Whole Foods and from ThriveMarket.com (great prices). Dijon has salt, but there is so little in the vinaigrette it doesn't add much. One teaspoon of the brand I use has 110 mg of sodium, but that dressing recipe will serve multiple people, so what it adds is little.