From Jack's Magical Bean Stalk

Growing up we’ll admit, there was a little fear of bean salad. I mean, what child eats bean salad (really, find us one so we can experiment on them…?. As we’ve aged (gracefully), we’ve developed a bit of a taste for this lovely salad. We cooked (not literally) up a recipe and wanted to share it with you.

The recipe makes a LOT of salad, so it’s good for sharing. You can cut it in half, and use your leftover beans for other purposes. Or you can simply cook up some dried beans to make the perfect amount.

Four Bean Salad

Beans:
1 can black beans
1 can northern beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 can chick peas

Drain and rinse black beans, northern beans and kidney beans. Place into a large bowl

Pour chick peas into a small sauce pan, and cover with water. Heat water until just boiling. Simmer peas for about 3 minutes (this just takes a little crunch out… if you’re good with the crunch, skip this step). Drain and rinse chick peas and add to the bean bowl.

Marinade:

1 c. vinegar (we mixed the following: ½ cup cider vinegar, ¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar, ¼ cup white vinegar, and splashed in a few Tbsps of white balsamic vinegar)
½ c. lemon juice
1 c. oil (we did half olive and half vegetable)
1 Tbsp. stone ground mustard
½ c. chopped scallions
1 red onion- finally diced
1 clove garlic
1-2 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
(we also added about a tsp of smoked paprika… you can also add some cumin)

Mix all marinade ingredients and pour over beans.

We found that letting the salad sit in the fridge for at least 10 hours allowed the flavors to blend together really well.  We served a helping of beans over some thinly sliced cabbage, which added another level of flavor and crunch

Enjoy!