Three Bean Salad
Don't be fooled by it's humble name. Three bean salad is colorful, flavorful, and versatile - and it's easy on the grocery bill too!
It’s the beginning of gardening season, but for many of us, there’s still not much coming out of the garden this time of year. To make it worse, our preserved foods are all but gone as well. As a result, we are reduced to buying our food, and with the price of groceries today, than can be challenging sometimes. Thankfully there are some great ways to to combine canned and frozen foods with fresh produce to make affordable dishes that delicious and beautiful - and three bean salad is one such dish.
This dish is very versatile, and many ingredients can be substituted in or out, depending on you taste, and simply what’s on hand.
Ingredients (serves 4-6 easily):
Directions
Place the corn and beans in a colander, rinse, and add to a large salad bowl.
Finely dice the pepper, celery, onion, and parsley, and add to the bowl.
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a jar, and shake until well combined.
Add the dressing to the bowl, mix, and let chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Variations
I’ve tried lots of of variations on this recipe so I’ll share a few of my insights here. I find that blanched green or yellow beans can be subbed in for the corn - but that peas just don’t work in this salad. I’ve left the parsley out at times and it’s still fine. I’ve also used lovage instead of celery and it’s really good (don’t add too much lovage or it will be too intense - maybe one or two sprigs at most). When I have them - I also like to add green onions.
In terms of scaling up for large groups, it’s not a 1:1 thing. In general, if you double (2x) the salad ingredients, you only need to increase the dressing ingredients by 50% (1.5x) - so the dressing would have 1.5 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp pepper, 3/8 cup (6 tbsp.) of veg oil, and so on. I also like to add 1 tsp of mustard to the dressing as well, and of course the chilies/hot sauce are totally optional.
Honestly, I think the most important thing is the inclusion of pepper/onion/celery (aka the “holy trinity”), and getting the correct ratio of sugar to vinegar to oil in the dressing. Of course everyone is different, and if you scour to interwebs for three bean salad recipes you’ll some that are more sweet, some more sour, and some more oily. My advice is to try my recipe, and make notes for the next time, until you’ve got it just right for you.
Why this works
Three bean salad, to the best of my knowledge, has its roots in Southern cooking - and that makes sense given that so many of the ingredients come from things that grow well in warmer places. Like many examples of good Southern cooking, three bean salad takes simple ingredients and brings them up to a whole ‘nother level with culinary skill rather than costly ingredients. In the case of this salad, it is the core ingredients of the “holy trinity” combined with a judicious application of sweet, sour, salt and heat that makes the difference. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!
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Looks delicious! Thank you!