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Bean Salads

© Allison Tyler

Bean salads are an easy answer to the question of what to make for dinner when it’s just too hot to cook. They also pack and travel well, making them a perfectly delicious fit for your picnic basket, potluck or lunch bag. Below you’ll find lots of recipes and links for tasty bean salads. You could, of course, use well-drained and rinsed canned beans in any of the following salads (and most of the recipes call for just that), but if you’d like, try cooking up dried beans for your recipes. You’ll find the effort well worth it in terms of a bit more flavor and refined texture. Here’s a mini dried bean primer to get you started:

There are infinite varieties of beans ranging in color from creamy white, to speckled red, to shiny black and every variation in between. Size and flavor vary as greatly as the color. One cup of dried beans usually equals about 3 cups of cooked beans, with approximately 2 cups of dried beans per pound.

Most dried beans are soaked (split peas and lentils are not) before cooking. The only reason for this is to start the re-hydration process and hasten cooking time. For any type of dried bean, rinse them thoroughly under running water, pick out any stones or dirt that may be mixed in and then put the beans in a pot and fill with enough fresh water (approximately 6 cups of water per pound of beans) to cover the beans. Soak most beans overnight for 8 to 12 hours. However, Black-Eyed Peas should soak for about 2 hours, and Adzuki and Black beans for about 4 hours.

You may find it more convenient to use the quick-soak method. Rinse and pick through beans as above. Put beans in a pot and fill with enough fresh water to cover the beans. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for two minutes. Turn off the heat, cover beans and soak for one hour.

After any soaking method, discard the soaking water and re-cover the beans with fresh, cold water. Some people add salt and others say that salt will toughen the beans. I do not add salt while the beans are cooking. Add a bit of oil if you’d like (some say it prevents boil-over) and seasonings (a bay leaf perhaps). Bring the beans to a boil, reduce the heat, then cover and simmer until the beans are tender. Depending on the bean this could take anywhere from 15 minutes (red lentils) to 4 hours (soy beans). Most beans cook in a about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. The following cooking times are approximate and will vary, so check your beans periodically for tenderness and be sure the beans stay covered with water. If the water level gets low, add hot water to the pot:

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