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Simple, Healthy, Italian Bean Salad and How to Cook Dried Beans

Authentic, simple and healthy Italian bean salad is so easy to make, yet delicious and full of protein. Makes a great packed lunch or picnic dish.

Italian Cannellini bean salad

Originally published October 4th, 2013.

Many people think that Italian cuisine is complicated and involves lots of “herbs and spices.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Most Italian dishes are very simple and involve a few flavors which, instead of fighting for attention, come together beautifully to complement each other. This Italian bean salad is a perfect example: it is simple, has only three or four ingredients, and amazing flavor. Here’s another vegetarian bean recipe you may enjoy.

Barley bean soup made in a slow cooker.

barley Bean Soup

It’s also low in fat, high in protein, and the extra virgin olive oil provides many health benefits. Cannellini beans are a super food in their own right, supplying high amounts of iron, vitamin B1, magnesium, antioxidants and more.

Italian Cannellini bean salad

I have made this Italian cannellini bean salad for many get togethers, buffets and parties, and guests always comment on how delicious it is. It’s perfect as a side dish, for a pot luck, picnic, brunch–the list goes on.

As a matter of fact, the photo of this Italian bean salad is my daughter’s packed lunch for school today, along with a piece of homemade bread.

fresh italian bean salad green onion garlic summer light recipe

As I stated in my “rant” about using quality ingredients: yes, you can use canned beans, but will it taste the same as home cooked beans? You know the answer, so I’m including how to cook dried beans in case you haven’t made them before. I always have a supply of home cooked beans in small containers in the freezer.

Beans in containers to freeze
They’re handy for making this bean salad, adding to Italian green beans, or making pasta & beans, for a super quick and healthy meal.

Authentic Pasta and Beans aka Pasta e Fagioli
my favorite type of bean: Borlotti or Cranberry beans

How to Cook Dried Beans

Step 1. Soak the beans overnight (I cooked cannellini, but the same directions apply to any kind of bean like kidney, navy, garbanzo, borlotti, fava etc.). I usually start to soak them in the afternoon, in at least 4 or 5 times the amount of water. You don’t want the beans to dry up while soaking.

this is after soaking about 18 hours, before cooking

Step 2. Then next day, rinse the beans well, picking out any debris. Add water in a pot about an inch or two above the level of the beans.

Step 3. Put on the stove over medium high heat, and bring to a boil. Stir and remove the foam with a wooden spoon and discard, then lower the heat so that the beans are at a constant simmer for approximately 45 minutes, or until cooked. About 35 minutes into cooking, add a teaspoon of salt.

How to cook beans

Taste the beans for readiness, and add salt, if needed. If the beans are still hard, continue to cook, if it tastes rather bland, add more salt.

Beans in a wooden spoon
Drain, and cool. Use as desired, or refrigerate or freeze.

Simple, Healthy Italian Bean Salad

serves two as a side dish

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cooked beans (your choice)
  • 2 green onions or regular onion (sweet is best)
  • 1 to 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (good quality will make a HUGE difference)
  • wine vinegar, optional (I LOVE it with vinegar, but it’s a totally a matter of taste)
  • good quality sea salt, to taste 

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss together gently. Taste for salt, and add a little if necessary. How can it get any easier than this?

Serve with crusty Italian bread, of course, homemade is the best!

Italian Cannellini bean salad

Italian Cannellini bean salad

Simple, Healthy, Italian Bean Salad

Servings: 2 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
A super simple Italian style bean salad.
5 from 14 votes

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cooked beans your choice
  • 2 green onions (or equivalent size in regular onion, sweet is best)
  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • tsp sea salt (to taste)

Instructions

  • Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss together gently. Taste for salt, add more if necessary.
  • Serve with crusty Italian bread

Notes

  • Nutrition information includes cannellini beans.

Nutrition

Serving: 4oz | Calories: 148kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 392mg | Potassium: 42mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 0.3g | Vitamin A: 150IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 79mg | Iron: 3mg
This is the same style of Italian bean salad made with small fava beans and green onions.

Italian bean salad recipe using fava beans.

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5 from 14 votes (14 ratings without comment)

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43 Comments

  1. One of my favorite salads—to which I usually add tuna, but it’s lovely without, too. And yes, I’ve got to have the onions, although I sometimes use the red ones, as they tend to be a bit milder.

  2. I completely agree with you that cooking your own beans make such a difference! But I also add a note that you have to make sure that your dried beans (and I know this sounds like an oxymoron) are fresh! I once had some beans that I put aside for a rainy day… That rainy day didn’t show up for several years, and the beans were a disaster!

    And here is where I get really picky – I won’t eat a raw onions or scallions if you paid me! I just can’t stand the way it stays with me on my breath for so long… Not to mention that they are so hard to digest!

  3. I need to add beans to my diet! It’s high time I used them since always a bit shy of them – guess having two teenagers just now who joke about them. Enough said. Thanks for re-posting this, Christina.

    1. Oh no! Don’t let them keep you off beans, of all things! I’m sure you can get beautiful dried beans in France, Jill! Make the girls some pasta e fagioli and they’ll never joke about beans again! ;)

  4. Christina,
    I enjoy your posts so much and have used many recipes. Everything has been delicious. My recipe for Cannellini beans comes from an old (now deceased) Italian friend from Rome. It also uses a glass Italian bean cooker which he carried on the plane as a gift to me. His son just gifted me with another one this past Christmas.
    After soaking beans, place in glass carafe with 3T olive oil;2 bay leaves;long sprig of rosemary stem and all; 2 whole garlic cloves; 21/2 tsp salt and pinch of pepper. Fill carafe with water covering beans by 1-2 inches. Simmer for about 1.5 hrs. If they begin to dry out add boiling water until cooked.
    These are so divine and if you don’t have a glass cooker, you need to get one b/c you’ll never cook them any other way. Your kitchen looks like a chemistry lab with its fat bolbous bottom, long skinny neck with a cork to seal the top. Inside the cook is a short glass or stainless straw to allow steam to escape. If you need a picture I’ll be glad to send.

    1. Hi Elaine, thank you so much for your kind words! I’m so happy you enjoy my recipes. Your bean cooker sounds so intriguing! I tried googling it and only found one photo “tuscan bean cooker”. I’d love it if you could send me a photo of yours. My Nonna used to cook beans in a terra cotta jar next to the fire, in Italy. This sounds like a modern version of that. Thanks again for your note! CC

      1. My fiasco is put away right now so I took the lazy gal approach and found an identical picture of mine with beans.
        Unfortunately I can’t get the picture to post! Grrr I’ll try posting to your FB wall