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This salad is packed full of fibre and protein, and has no leafy greens! Personally, I love salads whose bulk is not made out of leafy greens; skip the leaves and just give me the good stuff! Best of all, this salad is excellent for meal prep — make a big batch of it Sunday night and you have enough for lunch all week. It doesn’t go soggy and gross like other salads do after an hour; instead, it gets better over time as the beans can marinate in the dressing longer.
Prep time: 20 minutes. Serves: 5 lunch-sized portions.
Ingredients:
Dressing:
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp maple syrup
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Salad:
1/2 pound fresh green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
1½ cups each of cooked kidney beans, cannellini beans, and chickpeas*
1/2 medium red onion, diced
5 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
*You can really use whatever beans you have lying around in your fridge or pantry — pinto beans, black beans, edamame — they all work great. A bean’s a bean. You can use canned beans if that’s all you have, but I prefer to buy dry beans and pressure cook them myself. It’s more time consuming to do it this way, but they’re less soggy and much cheaper.
Method:
1) Whisk all dressing ingredients together and set aside.
2) Steam the green beans in a pot until they are just cooked; you want to leave them with a little crunch still. When they are done, run them under cold water to stop them from cooking more.
3) Add all the beans and chopped vegetables together into a bowl, top with the dressing you made earlier, and toss to coat evenly with dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4) Cover and let the salad sit in the fridge for at least an hour before eating to let the dressing soak into the beans.
Recipe adapted from Thug Kitchen Party Grub.
(Andrea Sadowski/The Cascade)
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.
