I grew up on Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad and if you’re from the Midwest, I bet you did, too! There’s nothing like fresh garden beans soaking up all the sweet, tangy marinade!
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad
It’s a perfect salad for a summer party or potluck or to have on hand to fill out dinners or lunches. On a hot day, Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad is so cool and refreshing that I could demolish a bowl just for dinner!
About Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad:
If you’ve never had three bean salad, you’ve been missing out. It might sound a bit plain, but it is anything but. The traditional trio of beans: pale wax beans, garden green beans, and kidney beans (usually the kidneys are from a can) are beautifully cooked, cooled, and then marinated in a tangy sweet/sour concoction.
My recipe is classic with just a touch of thinly sliced onion and a little celery seed for additional flavor. Also classic is maybe a little thinly sliced green pepper. Whichever way you go, either the onion or green pepper, those fresh veggies bring just a bit of much needed crispy texture to the mix.
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad
Making Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad:
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad couldn’t be easier to make, but you’ll want to plan ahead for this salad. The hardest part of the recipe is waiting! It really is best if it sits overnight in the tangy marinade and is served the next day.
If you can’t wait that long, at least give it an hour or two and you might want to very slightly heat the vinegar & oil so it dissolves the sugar more quickly. Careful, though, don’t boil the mixture or you’ll need to air out your kitchen and your lungs of all the fumes! If you’ve heated the marinade mixture you’ll want to cool it before adding in the veggies.
And do keep in mind, if you are in a hurry, that the hotter the vinegar mixture, the longer it takes to cool. On the positive side even though there is a wait involved when it’s first made, three bean salad does last for a good week in the fridge – that makes this a perfect make ahead dish.
On to the particulars:
What sets this salad apart from most of the three bean salads out there is the way the fresh green beans are cooked and cooled. During the process, the beans will lose some of their gorgeous, bright colors but the trade-off is they pick up all the flavor of that tangy, sweet/sour marinade.
To prepare the green and wax beans, trim and cut, then cook. I love to drop them in a skillet with a bit of water & salt, cover and bring to a good simmer. The beans will basically half simmer and half steam in the shallow water. Watch the water level and don’t overcook. You’re looking for crisp/tender and it only takes minutes. Shock the beans by dropping them into an ice bath to stop the cooking, then drain.
Open the can of kidney beans, rinse and drain, and set aside. Thinly slice the onion; almost shave it, and set aside. Thinly slicing that onion does make a difference in the finished salad. Mix the marinade ingredients right in a large bowl, then add the beans and onion, and it’s all over but the wait.
Ingredients:
Three Bean Salad is best in the summer with both fresh green and fresh wax beans. While I don’t mind using canned wax beans in a pinch in my Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad, I have a problem with the canned green beans.
This is one of those dishes where if fresh green beans aren’t available, I generally don’t make it. If for some reason, you feel you have to make three bean salad and fresh green beans aren’t available, don’t use frozen beans – if even if canned aren’t great, they will still be a better substitute. Of course, you will not need to cook any canned beans in this recipe.
Variations:
Whenever I make a recipe, whether it’s one I’ve pulled from my old recipe box like this one, or a newer (to me) recipe I’m exploring, I’m always checking out what other people are doing. I guess it’s part of my obsessiveness over recipes and always wanting to have the best of whatever I’m eating!
Sometimes I find twists or hints that I love and I might try to incorporate some of them into my dish. I was a little surprised at all the variations I found for Three Bean Salad. Some add cilantro or turmeric for spices, and others use wine or flavored vinegar in the marinade. Red onion often replaced the white, and chickpeas were sometimes subbed in for the kidney beans.
I do have to say that I’m going to stick with this classic German standard just as is, that’s how much I love it. If I were going to make any of those variations it would be the chickpeas; they’re healthy, I like them a lot and guys, I don’t love kidney beans. I only tolerate them!
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad
Saving Money on Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad:
This is a recipe that is best made when the fresh ingredients are on sale, rather than being made at a whim and picking those fresh ingredients up for whatever price they happen to be at that week.
The other ingredients, being pantry staples aren’t so much of an issue if your pantry is well stocked. For your basic pantry items, it pays to shop at the discount stores like Lidl or Aldi. Sugar and vinegar are good items to pick up at your buyers club if you have a membership.
the green & wax beans:
Of course, watch for sales on the green and wax beans. And do stop by your farmer’s market when you have a chance. The prices can be pretty good, especially if you can keep yourself from getting carried away. Hint: I can’t!! If you’ve ever overbought on green beans or it becomes obvious you’re not going to get to yours in time (green beans do NOT keep long once you get them home) keep this recipe in mind – as mentioned above, once made, this salad keeps for a good week
kidney beans:
Although they aren’t my fave beans, I always keep a few cans of them in my pantry, and I pick them up at a low along with a few other beans I often use for chili or other favorite recipes.
Kidney beans, like other beans, are always more inexpensive when made from dried, and you’ll often find dried beans on sale around any holiday when ham is featured. That usually includes Easter, Mother’s Day, and the Winter holidays. Stock up on your dried beans then.
To see what’s on sale and a great deal during any holiday, check out my post Win at the Grocers. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the picture for each holiday.
vinegar & sugar:
Vinegar is best bought around Easter when vinegar of all kinds are usually on sale. Sugar and other baking products are often on sale before holidays, especially holidays known for baking, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. Again, check out my post Win at the Grocers.
If you’d like to look at some of my other salads, here’s my main salad menu: Salads, Dressings & Extras.
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad
Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad
- Total Time: 25 minutes + marinade
- Yield: 12 to 16 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: German
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed into approximately 2″ pieces
- 1 pound wax beans, trimmed into approximately 2″ pieces
- salt for cooking beans, about a teaspoon
- 1 can (about 1 1/2 cups) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 onion, very thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon celery seed
Instructions
Cook beans to tender/crisp: Add beans to large skillet or Dutch oven. Add about 1 cup water and desired amount of salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook four to five minutes until tender/crisp. Drain and plunge into a bowl of cold water. Drain when cool and set aside.
Add the vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, and celery seed to a large bowl. Whisk to mix and dissolve sugar (the sugar doesn’t need to be completely dissolved.) Taste and adjust, adding more vinegar, sugar, or salt as desired. The dressing should be both sweet and tart and well seasoned with salt.
Add the green, wax, and kidney beans along with the onion. Stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate, preferably overnight to serve the next day. Stir occasionally if time permits.
Notes:
- Canned wax beans and/or green beans may be used in a pinch.
- Will keep for about a week, tightly covered in the refrigerator
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I’ll be sharing my Old Fashioned Three Bean Salad at Fiesta Friday #239, hosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Lathi @ From Lathi’s Kitchen
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