An easy 5 bean salad with tinned (canned) cannellini beans, black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and fresh green beans! Added crunch comes from diced celery, red onion, and bell peppers.
The perfect salad for BBQs, potlucks, and picnics, or served as a delicious and hearty side dish for air fryer chicken breasts or honey glazed salmon.
This easy cold bean salad with a classic garlic mustard vinaigrette is one of my most requested salad recipes!
It's super quick to put together, and easy to adapt. The hardest part is opening the cans of beans!
👩🍳 Love salads? Try my easy curried rice salad too!
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✔️ Why you'll love this recipe!
Here's why this is the best five bean salad recipe!
- Colourful and healthy side dish.
- Easily doubled to feed a crowd.
- Budget-friendly and frugal.
- Keeps well in the fridge.
- Uses store cupboard ingredients.
- Adaptable.
🛒 Ingredient notes
- Beans - you'll need 400g tins of kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, and cannellini beans. I prefer to use fresh green beans (or yellow wax beans), as tinned green beans can be a bit mushy! Other tinned beans you could use include haricot beans (navy beans), butter beans (lima beans), and pinto beans.
- Red Onion - finely diced.
- Celery - diced.
- Peppers - in this recipe, I've used 1 red pepper and 1 green pepper, finely chopped. Yellow peppers would also work well.
- Dressing - the simple dressing is made with extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar (or use apple cider vinegar), caster sugar, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.
- Parsley- for garnishing.
🔪 How to make 5 bean salad
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Open the cans of beans with a can opener, place them in a colander over the sink and rinse in cold water. Pat dry and put the canned beans into a large bowl.
Two: Fill a medium saucepan with water and place on a high heat on the hob. Once boiling, add the green beans (which have been cut into 3cm pieces) and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, and add to the large bowl.
Three: Place the chopped red onion, celery, and peppers into the bowl and mix to combine.
Four: In a small bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients. Stir through the salad and refrigerate before serving. Garnish with parsley.
💭 Expert tips
- Store any extra salad dressing in a jam jar in the fridge. It will keep for up to 7 days.
- Thoroughly rinse the tinned beans in cold water to get rid of the starchy water from their cans. Allow to drain and pat dry if needed.
🍴 What to serve with bean salad
Serve the classic 5 bean salad at summer BBQ's along with a spicy potato salad, grilled meats, veggie skewers, and courgette & feta burgers!
I also like the salad on its own for a light lunch, sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese.
📖 Variations
- Use whatever tinned beans you have! You don't have to stick with the types I use, that's just a guide. Go and experiment!
- Sprinkle the bean salad with red pepper flakes for a bit of colour!
- Use a store-bought honey mustard salad dressing to save time.
- Add toasted pecan nuts or walnuts for crunch and texture.
- Swap the parsley for freshly chopped coriander or mint.
- Add other crunchy salad vegetables such as diced cucumber and sliced radishes.
🥡 Storage
Store: The salad will keep in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container. Personally, I think it tastes better once the flavours have had time to develop (on days 2-3).
Freeze: Not suitable for freezing.
❓ Frequently asked questions
Yes! Beans are low in fat, but high in protein and fibre, meaning they are great at keeping tummies feeling nice and full. They are also good for regulating blood sugar.
Tinned (canned) beans come ready cooked in their tins so there is no need to cook the beans before making the salad. Just open the cans, drain, and rinse!
Yes, this bean salad is naturally vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
😋 More easy salad recipes
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
- Greek Orzo Salad
- Courgette & Feta Salad
- Prawn, Avocado and Mango Salad
- Beetroot and Goats Cheese Salad
- Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad
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Recipe
Easy 5 Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 1 Celery Stalk diced
- ½ Red Onion finely chopped
- 1 Red Pepper deseeded and diced
- 1 Green Pepper deseeded and diced
- 400 g Kidney Beans in a tin
- 400 g Black Beans in a tin
- 400 g Cannellini Beans in a tin
- 400 g Chickpeas in a tin
- 220 g Fresh Green Beans trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces
- 2 tablespoon Parsley chopped finely
For the dressing
- 6 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
- 2 teaspoon Caster Sugar
- 1 Garlic Clove finely chopped
- 4 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper
Instructions
- Open the cans of beans with a can opener, place them in a colander over the sink and rinse in cold water. Pat dry and put the canned beans into a large bowl.400 g Kidney Beans, 400 g Black Beans, 400 g Cannellini Beans, 400 g Chickpeas
- Fill a medium saucepan with water and place on a high heat on the hob. Once boiling, add the green beans (which have been cut into 3cm pieces) and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, and add to the large bowl.220 g Fresh Green Beans
- Place the chopped red onion, celery, and peppers into the bowl and mix to combine.1 Celery Stalk, 1 Red Pepper, 1 Green Pepper, ½ Red Onion
- In a small bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients. Stir through the salad and refrigerate before serving.6 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar, 2 teaspoon Caster Sugar, 1 Garlic Clove, 4 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, ½ teaspoon Salt, ¼ teaspoon Pepper
- Garnish with chopped parsley.2 tablespoon Parsley
Notes
- Store any extra salad dressing in a jam jar in the fridge. It will keep for up to 7 days.
- Thoroughly rinse the tinned beans in cold water to get rid of the starchy water from their cans. Allow to drain and pat dry if needed.
- Use whatever tinned beans you have! You don't have to stick with the types I use, that's just a guide. Go and experiment!
- Sprinkle the bean salad with red pepper flakes for a bit of colour!
- Use a store-bought honey mustard salad dressing to save time.
- Add toasted pecan nuts or walnuts for crunch and texture.
- Swap the parsley for freshly chopped coriander or mint.
- Add other crunchy salad vegetables such as diced cucumber and sliced radishes.
Jess
I love making this bean salad for our summer BBQs!
Carrie Robinson
I just love easy salad recipes like this! Such a great side dish to bring to a potluck or family dinner. 🙂
Michele
We loved this delicious summer salad! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Laura Arteaga
Such a colorful and protein-packed salad. This is what we need for this summer. As a vegetarian family, we really appreciate recipes that contain such a high amount of protein. Thanks a lot, we are keeping this recipe!
Emily
This salad is so fresh, crunchy, and delicious! We enjoyed it as a side along with our burgers. Next time we'll try it for lunch with a sprinkling of feta!
Debbie
Found out (too late) shouldn’t use any oil-globs up in the fridge and sticks to all the veggies, making them greasy. Also recommend double the liquid. But it was very good!!