This three bean salad is a blend of kidney beans, green beans and garbanzo beans, all tossed in a sweet and savory dressing. A classic salad that’s easy to make and is the perfect addition to almost any meal!
I love a good salad, some of my favorite salad recipes include burrata salad, pesto pasta salad and Mexican coleslaw. This bean salad is so good that I can make a whole meal out of it! Best of all, it takes just 10 minutes to prepare.
Growing up, we always had a big jar of three bean salad in the fridge. My mom would buy it at Costco and it made for the perfect easy snack or side dish. My homemade bean salad has a delicious taste that’s a million times better than the store bought version, and it takes just minutes to make! It’s always a huge hit for potlucks and parties.
Pair your salad with main course options such as stuffed bell peppers, crack chicken, eggplant lasagna, chicken milanese or chicken coated in jerk chicken marinade.
Table of Contents
Three Bean Salad Ingredients
This three bean salad includes a can of garbanzo beans, a can of kidney beans, thinly sliced red onions, fresh green beans and parsley. For your dressing you will need olive oil, sugar, apple cider vinegar, salt and black pepper.
How Do You Make Three Bean Salad?
To make this three bean salad recipe, first boil the green beans in salted water until tender. Place them in a bowl with ice water to cool. In a large bowl place the cooled green beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, onion and parsley. In a separate small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients, then pour the dressing over the beans and toss everything together. Chill the salad for at least 2 hours, then serve and enjoy!
Tips For Three The Perfect Bean Salad
- I use a mandoline to get ultra thin shavings of red onion.
- Serve this salad as a side dish, or add some protein like cooked cubed chicken for a main course offering.
- While I recommend using fresh green beans for the best flavor and texture, you can also use canned green beans if needed.
- Be sure to rinse your canned beans well to remove excess sodium.
- This salad is perfect for summer picnics because it doesn’t have any lettuce to wilt in the heat. However, I do recommend keeping the salad cool before serving it. Salads should not sit at room temperature for more than 1 hour during the warmer months to stay within food safety guidelines.
Quick Tip
This salad is actually best made at least 2 hours before you plan to serve it. You can make your salad up to 3 days before you plan to eat it, and the beans will marinate in the dressing.
Recipe FAQs
The kidney beans and garbanzo beans in this recipe come in a thick liquid that I always like to rinse off before proceeding with the recipe. Simply place your beans in a colander and rinse them under cold running water for best results.
The green beans in this recipe are blanched, which means that they’re lightly cooked in boiling water just until tender. Transfer your cooked green beans to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process; this also helps them retain their bright green color.
The most common beans for a three bean salad include garbanzo beans, kidney beans and green beans. You can include other types of beans to make variations on the classic recipe.
Most bean salads use a sweet and savory dressing that includes some type of vinegar, olive or vegetable oil, sugar and a variety of seasonings.
You can store your three bean salad up to 4 days in an airtight container in a refrigerator.
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Bean Salad Variations
While I love this salad as-is, sometimes I mix thing up a bit by including other types of beans! You still want about 5 1/2 – 6 cups of beans total, but you can add in different varieties for a different flavor.
- Four Beans: Kidney beans, garbanzo beans, green beans and wax beans.
- Five Beans: Kidney beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, wax beans and cannellini beans.
- Six Beans: Kidney beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, wax beans, cannellini beans and lima beans.
- Seven Beans: Kidney beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, wax beans, cannellini beans, lima beans and pinto beans.
Try adding some ingredients to bring extra flavor to your bean salad.
- Herbs: I typically use parsley in my salad because I always have it on hand, but other great options include green onions, basil, oregano, mint or fresh dill.
- Veggies: You can add chopped celery, bell peppers or tomatoes to this salad for some new flavors and textures.
- Dressing: For a sweeter dressing add a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup to your salad dressing. To make your dressing more tangy, try adding two teaspoons of Dijon mustard or some of red wine vinegar.
No matter what type of beans you choose, this bean salad recipe is always a huge hit at potlucks and picnics!
More Great Salad Recipes
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Black Bean and Corn Salad
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Creamy Cucumber Salad
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Farro Salad with Feta
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Chickpea Salad with Avocado
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Three Bean Salad Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Three Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
- 2 cups fresh green beans cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup red onion very thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 2 minutes or until just tender. Place the green beans in a bowl of ice water to cool, then drain and pat dry.
- Place the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, red onion and parsley in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the beans and toss to coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours or up to three days, then serve.
Notes
- This salad is actually best made at least 2 hours before you plan to serve it. You can make your salad up to 3 days before you plan to eat it, and the beans will marinate in the dressing.
- I prefer to use fresh green beans, but canned will also work and do not need to be blanched.
My second time making this. I use whatever beans I have. Today I used green beans, pinto beans and kidney beans. Yummy, thanks for the recipe.
Perfect seasonings in this recipe! I make it all the time and it still tasted good after 3 days in the refrigerator.
I use robust Italian salad dressing.
Yummy, love it
I don’t use any sugar and I use a little less vinegar and add a tablespoon of cold water. Don’t understand the need for sugar here,. Might be just me, I grew up in Europe and we don’t add sugar to savory things.
Really Good!!! Used a Tablespoon of Agave instead of Sugar and it turned out great!! Thank you for the East and Delicious Recipe!!!
Yum! I’ve been looking for this recipe. I could easily live on this salad minus the oil.
Thank you
This is wonderful!! I mix it with cooked Quinoa, some Feta and call it a meal – YUM! 😋 And in the name of the old Mr. Food “any beans will do”!
Wow, this was delicious – and easy! I just had leftovers from yesterday and it only got better. Great balance of ingredients to get wonderful tanginess. We are trying to wean ourselves off meat, so I was looking for a protein-rich recipe. Had it will meatless burgers on home made whole wheat burger buns. Great summer dinner.
Loved it!!
I got requests for a repeat for our weekly ‘potlunch’. I made one addition–a pinch of dry mustard in the dressing. A quick squirt of prepared mustard would do too, I suppose– I’ve found most cold dressed salads like this benefit from just a hint of the stuff, and I don’t even like mustard as a general rule.
I used wax beans, it was delicious.
I made this recipe and I really like the result! I followed everything except I used canned green beans and dried parsley, and added some dried dill. I added the sugar 1 Tbsp at a time because some said it was too sweet, but I ended up using the recommended 3 Tbsp and got a good flavor (to me). I mostly eat vegan so this is a recipe I will keep in my usual rotation.
Thanx for the great recipe, I’m eating some right now! I like how it is simple and few ingredients.
The recipe sounds great. I can’t wait to try it. Thanks a lot. Dagmar
So happy to find this recipe as I had everything already in the house to make it. Great flavor too!
OMG! This was so delicious! I couldn’t wait for things in the bowl to get friendly; I started eating it right away. It was the perfect amount of sweet and sour! I will be making this a lot! Even if it’s just for me! 😁
Sounds wonderful! I will definitely be trying this one. I have found that an old fashioned potato peeler works well for the ultra thin onion slices as well!
I like wax beans in mine too, adds more color!
Nicest 3 bean salad I’ve ever done (and easiest!)
Thanks for sharing the recipe
Fantastic recipe, but I have to drop a star for too much sugar. I’ve made it a couple times now and the first time the dressing was way too sweet. The second time I only used 2 Tbsp sugar even while doubling everything else and it was still pretty sweet. Next time I’ll try just one or maybe one tablespoon of honey. The second time I used cilantro instead of parsley and felt it was equally as good.