I love this classic bean salad recipe. It has the simplest tangy dressing and is perfect for picnics, barbecues, and make-ahead meals.
Bean salads are my favorite for entertaining, especially during the summer. I also find myself making them for make-ahead meals throughout the week. You can use canned beans or home cooked beans in this recipe!
This simple three bean salad recipe is super adaptable. You can make it with whatever beans you have on hand. Canned beans make this super easy, but you can cook your own. If you prefer homemade, check out our recipes for how to cook black beans and how to cook chickpeas.
Key Ingredients
- Beans: In our photos, we’ve used three types of beans: chickpeas, pinto beans, and black beans. For a traditional 3 bean salad, use chickpeas, kidney beans, and canned or blanched green beans. Or make it a 5 bean salad and use chickpeas, pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, and canned or blanched green beans.
- Onion: I love sweet onion for this salad since it adds crunch but doesn’t overpower the salad with onion flavor.
- Cucumber: You really want some crunch to balance the softer texture of the beans. I love cucumber, but celery, fennel, jicama, and bell peppers are all excellent crunchy veggies that work in this salad.
- Capers: My favorite ingredient in this bean salad is capers, which add little salty notes throughout. I love them!
- Fresh herbs: Look at pretty much any salad recipe on Inspired Taste, and you’ll see me adding fresh herbs. I love fresh parsley in this salad, but other herbs will work, too. Try basil, mint, tarragon, dill and cilantro. When adding tarragon, add to taste since it is more flavorful than other fine herbs.
- My favorite bean salad dressing: I love keeping the flavors in this salad light, so my dressing only requires a quick whisk of red wine vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper, and dried oregano (Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence would work nicely, too). I use a similar dressing to make my favorite pasta salad.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make My Favorite Bean Salad
Tip 1: Drain and rinse your beans. If you are using canned beans to make this salad, drain and rinse them under cold water before tossing them with the other salad ingredients. The liquid in the can can taste a bit salty, and since it has starch from the beans, it can make the salad dressing look murky. If you are using chickpeas be sure to save the liquid to make aquafaba.
Tip 2: Let your salad rest. The dressing needs a quick whisk before tossing it with the salad. For the best bean salad, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving to allow the beans to marinate in the dressing.
Serving Suggestions
You’ll find this bean salad in our fridge most weeks. It’s such a fantastic thing to have on hand for easy lunches or dinners. I love tossing it over salad greens or some fluffy quinoa. It’s also excellent when served next to some of our lighter meals, like this lemon dill salmon, these skillet chicken breasts, or these juicy baked pork chops.
It’s also perfect for summertime entertaining. Serve this easy bean salad alongside other summer salads, such as our no-mayo potato salad, fresh corn salad, this Italian pasta salad, or this incredible lemon and herb couscous salad.
More Bean Salads
Ridiculously Easy Bean Salad
- PREP
- TOTAL
My family’s easy bean salad is perfect for saving in the fridge for the week. The beans you choose to use for this simple bean salad is up to you. I turned mine into a three bean salad, but you can use whatever you want. Both canned or home cooked beans will work. When using canned, drain and rinse the beans first before adding to the salad.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
3 (15oz) cans beans, drained and rinsed or use 4 ½ cups cooked beans
½ medium onion, finely chopped, about ¾ cup
1 medium cucumber, finely chopped, about 2 cups
3 tablespoons drained capers
½ cup (60g) finely chopped fresh parsley
¾ teaspoon dried oregano
For the Dressing¼ cup (60ml) red wine vinegar
¼ cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 to 2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup, optional
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Add chopped onions to a small bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes, drain, and then rinse. This step helps to remove some of the “raw” flavor of the onion so that it does not overpower the salad.
2Meanwhile, in the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper. Taste the dressing and then adjust with more salt/pepper. If the dressing tastes too abrasive, whisk in 1 to 2 teaspoons of honey or maple syrup to balance out the vinegar.
3Add the beans, drained onion, cucumber, parsley, capers and dried oregano. Toss well, cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour to allow the beans to marinate in the dressing.
4The salad will keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Store bean salad in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
- Beans: In our photos, we have used chickpeas, black beans and pinto beans. You can use these or other cooked or canned beans for the salad.
- Fresh herbs: Parsley is classic in this salad, but other fine herbs work nicely, too. Try basil, mint, dill, cilantro or tarragon. When using tarragon, use a bit less than what is called for in the recipe above since it has a stronger flavor.
- Dried herbs: I enjoy dried oregano in this salad, but other herb blends will work nicely. Try an Italian, Mediterranean or French dried spice blend (like Herbes de Provence).
- Honey/maple syrup: Depending on the vinegar you use, you might find the dressing a little too vinegary. To balance this out, simply whisk in a little sweetener like honey or maple syrup.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This is a great side for a bbq. We love it! I added parsley and cilantro from the garden. I even threw in some feta. Thanks inspired tasted… Blair
Making this recipe for the 4th of July. Excited to try it. Thank you so much.
Delicious and so easy, thank you!
I made this bean salad and my husband and I are hooked. The dressing is perfect. I used black beans, garbanzo and red kidney beans. I making more today as we finished the 1st batch yesterday. A great side dish or even a protein meal. Thanks so much for sharing.
Finally a go to bean salad recipe. I use 5 types of beans, so increase the dressing slightly. This recipe is easy to change up, adding different veggies and herbs.
We are so happy you enjoyed the recipe! We can never get enough of the dressing when we make this recipe 🙂
Excellent recipe. I used pinto, cannalini and black beans. Instead of capers I used chopped Kalamata olives. Outstanding.
I am thinking of making this as a side dish for Pizza for a church function. What are your thoughts?
That would be great!
Fantastic. I used 5 cans of beans, 3 persian cucumbers, eyeballed the dressing, and added 1 can of corn, and it still came out stellar. Foolproof recipe!
Very easy bean salad. I loved how simple this salad was and the flavors did not miss. Thank you!
So happy you gave it a try, Sydney!
Finished making it and I’ve put it in the refrigerator to chill. I used kidney beans Black Eyed Peas and garbanzo beans. I also used cilantro because I didn’t have parsley. I might be sorry however I doubled the dressing. I also added feta cheese and I would have added avocado if I had any. I can’t wait to dig into it!
Love that you added feta! That is totally up my alley.
We made it with cilantro, and it was great! I personally found the dressing to be a little light on the salt, and ours was fairly runny, even after whisking. Just keep that in mind if serving for a potluck give it a stir every now and again.
Can this Salad be frozen
Hi Helen, I don’t recommend freezing this bean salad. The beans tend to turn mushy once thawed, and the dressing can separate. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days, but it isn’t a good candidate for the freezer.
Absolutely delicious, and it got rave reviews. I served it as a side dish with quiche. I substituted red kidney beans for the suggested can of black beans. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly, except that I added a little extra maple syrup as the vinaigrette was a little too tart for my taste.
Fantastic meal! full of goodness & super easy to make.
I’ve made bean salad my way but used these tips when wanting to make sure it had flavor with the vinegarette and made at least 7 or 8 salads so far ,let’s just say I am Addicted ..lol
I make this with blanched green and yellow beans from the garden and canned beans. This recipe is the number one reason I grow yellow beans! So satisfying that I can eat it for lunch by itself. Even better the second day.
I made this today and it is excellent! Thank you for this great summer recipe! I am going to have it with BLTs for dinner! 5 Stars
Really great flavor! I used black and pinto beans, and herbs from the garden. Make this recipe, you’ll be glad you did!
This was delicious! I only had two cans of beans, so I subbed one for fresh green beans that I blanched. And I added some corn kernels for color. I’m adding this to my regular rotation!
This was great! I added in orzo and mozzarella to make it a dinner, I’ll definitely be adding this to my summer rotation and trying it with lots of other pasta/veggies
Delicious and very easy. I’ll absolutely prepare this again. Recommend! I added some red pepper flakes, btw.
I’m fascinated with each recipe. You mix ingredients I’d never have tried. Question: would you consider including iron specs along with the protein?
Glad you enjoy them. At the moment, the current top level nutritional data is what we are comfortable sharing.
Absolutely delicious! I made it without sweetener because it didn’t need it.
It looks easy, and it probably is……my mother used to make it, but didn’t leave her recipe with me……back in the day when I grew up in the States…… she said it was very easy…. so i’ll have to try….. but not all kinds of beans avalable here in Holland.
It’s really good but I like it better if apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar and red onion rather than sweet onion. More strong flavored to me. Its good recipes good for steak bbq etc..
I love this recipe! I load it up by adding sweet peppers, cucumbers, onions, and cherry tomatoes. It’s a huge hit at get togethers too! I make it almost every week and it last several days in the fridge!! Of county family loves it too!!
Great recipe! I substituted apple cider vinegar for the red wine vinegar, and used honey mustard instead of Dijon. Yummy salad…will definitely make it again. Thank you!!!
So happy you loved it! 🙂
Delicious recipe. Easy and healthy. I didn’t find the dressing too vinegar-y at all. I put in the optional maple syrup, and would probably leave it out next time. Delish!
So good and so easy to make! This is our second time making it and we love it so much. We used red onion both times because that’s what we had on hand. Delicious.
I have been craving something green for weeks. I feel depleted of all energy and the place i want to get a smoothieh is closeed and i looked in my cabinet and there were beans and it made me think of my dear friend barbara rabb who recenlty told me about a great bean salad recipe. I started to wonder if that was what i needed. so i looked and i found this recipe > I think i am in heaven. I read this to my dauther and my cat. Their ears perked up and their taste buds started growling. My daughter might come home from NYC to try it but if she cant i told hw rnot to worry bc I will rbing it to her. I alrady sent her the recipe via text so one way or anotehr she will try this recipe that we are certain is going to chanag eour lives. thank you so much for sharing this. I will reply again once w actualy mke it thank you for reading this ware the not the ki of popel that usuallyleave sreviews but we are so overtkane by the joy in this recipe and the light flavors and we are jsut. besid rouselvse I have to gleave and go to the store to buy the stuff i dont have.. ihope ihave enough money bc if i dont get to eat this tody I might fall down the stiars.
I saw this bean salad recipe on your site when I was looking at your carrot cake recipe. (Yum!) The reviews were great, so I tried making it.
I used cilantro, light red kidney beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. I had never heard about the onion trick with putting it in water. I was pleasantly surprised and wished someone had shared that with me before now. My only problem was trying to get my family to try it. Once they did, they enjoyed it! My daughter thinks it will be good to add feta cheese the next time that I make it. So, it’s taste won them over!
This recipe is excellent. Even my fussy brother love it.
This is so delicious! defnitely will be making this again and again!
This is such a great bean dish. Great flavors, and flexible vegetable choices. I followed the recipe and added some broccoli florets. I used dried chickpeas that I cooked in my Instant Pot. This is a keeper, thank you for this recipe!
Wonderful! So happy you enjoyed it!
This is a great, quick recipe! I added avocado to it and dipped corn tortillas in it! Will make this on repeat.