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Here’s a recent recipe that’s especially useful for it’s versatility. It’s quick and easy to prepare with just a few ingredients, meaning it works equally well as a mid-week dinner side dish, or a last-minute contribution to a family cookout. Next, its three-bean mix is nutrient dense and full of slow-burning carbohydrates, which will provide long lasting energy and help fight off hunger. And if you’re eating a vegan or vegetarian diet? The same bean mix provides an essential source of plant-based protein. Most importantly, though? It tastes really good! Give it a try!

Ingredients (makes 16 – 1/4 cup servings)

• 1 15 oz can red kidney beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1 15 oz can black beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1 15 oz can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (drained & rinsed)
• 1 medium bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange) chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp fresh basil (or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp fresh parsley (or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

You Have One Job…

When I say this recipe is quick and easy, I mean it! The bulk of the “work” is simply cutting up the pepper. You want to cut your pepper into bite size pieces, roughly equivalent to the size of your beans. Visually you want the peppers to be the fourth element in the salad, so it looks best if everything is roughly the same size. Once you’ve got the pepper chopped, add it to whatever container you’re storing your salad in and you’re on your way.

Everybody in the Pool

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Next, just open your cans of beans, and gently rinse them under cool water and add them to your chopped pepper. The one caveat is, when opening the chickpeas, you might want to pour off the liquid in that can (called “aquafaba”, meaning “bean water”) which can be used to make all sorts of wonderful low-calorie treats. Check out my aquafaba meringue cookie recipe as just one example!

Anyway, once all the beans are rinsed and added, add the extra virgin olive oil and the lemon juice, the salt and pepper and the basil and parsley. If you don’t have fresh basil and parsley handy, just use dried. I highly recommend the Gourmet Garden products if you have them in your area. They’re fresh herbs in tubes which you can store in your fridge and have longer shelf life and are especially great when you’re looking for small amounts of herbs for most recipes.

Once all items are added, gently combine the ingredients until everything is well coated and distributed, and then store in the fridge.

Serving

I consider a serving of this salad to be 1/4 cup, as I regard it as a side dish. However, if you wanted to feature this more prominently in your meal because you were eating a plant-based diet, then you might eat two servings at once. Either way, it is filling and dense so always eat foods like this (all foods, really) slowly and let them do their job and fill you up! If you eat too quickly you’ll skip right past the part where your body is able to give you the signal that you’re satisfied and you don’t need to eat any more for a while!