Another Bean Salad

This is the bean salad that’s been showing up at family reunions, church potlucks, and picnic tables since the 1950s, and it earns its longevity. Five different beans (green, navy, lima, garbanzo, kidney) get tossed with sliced onions, celery, and green bell pepper, then doused in a hot sweet-sour vinegar dressing and left to marinate overnight.

The 24-hour marinate is the only step that really matters here. Bean salad eaten the same day tastes like canned beans and raw onion, while bean salad eaten the next day has transformed into something tangy, almost pickled, with the flavors from each ingredient melded into a single unified salad.

Boiling the dressing for one minute before pouring it over the beans is the technique that makes the marinade penetrate. Hot vinegar is far more aggressive than cold vinegar, the heat opens the bean skins and the sliced onions and pepper start to soften and mellow on contact.

Kitchen Tips

• Drain and rinse the canned beans well before adding, the canning liquid is gummy and salty and ruins the marinade balance
• Use white or apple cider vinegar, both work, neither dominates the way balsamic or red wine vinegar would
• Slice the onions paper-thin, the long marinade only tames their bite into mellow sweetness when slices are thin
• Salad keeps a full week in the fridge in a covered jar, and actually tastes better at day three or four
• Cut the sugar to ¾ cup if you want a less sweet, more savory bean salad

Variations

• Add a can of cooked corn kernels for color and a pop of sweetness
• Stir in ½ cup of pitted black olives or capers for a Mediterranean lean
• Substitute black beans or pinto for one of the beans for a different flavor profile