For those of you outside of the United States, it has been ridiculously hot and dry here in the midwest. And you know what that means. It means we are having another salad recipe!

I struggle a bit with canned beans. Cans in the United States tend to be lined with BPA. Eden Organics has cans that are BPA free…but they contain Kombu seaweed or as I like to call it organic MSG. You can use rehydrated cooked beans, but then the fast and easy part of this meal goes out the window. So if you use canned beans…this is great.

The best thing about this is that it goes beautifully with leftovers and is an instant side dish during the week. Microwaving leftover meatloaf…have a side of 4 bean salad. Leftover roast chicken,same thing. Grilling outside, great, have some 3 bean salad. Kids and men will even eat it!

This is also good for things where people tell you to “bring a dish” Both old timey hunter types and vegans like this as a side dish and although the green and wax beans are much better blanched, you can skip that step especially if they were previously frozen. It can sit out for a while without getting skunky.

Ingredients
One bag frozen organic green beans or one pound (after trimming so buy 1.5 lbs) fresh organic green beans (about 3 cups)
Two cups fresh or frozen trimmed wax beans cut into 1 inch pieces. These are optional. I find wax beans very hard to find except for about six weeks in the summer.
One 15 oz can of organic garbanzo beans by Eden Organics (the others have not committed to BPA free cans…so we only eat Eden)
One 15 oz can of organic Kidney Beans by Eden Organics
One finely diced / minced organic yellow onion (medium sized)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4c unpasturized organic apple cider vinegar
1/4c Organic extra virgin olive oil

Equipment
Measuring cups and spoons
Large glass or corning bowl that has a lid and is pretty enough to serve food.
Colander
Knife and cutting board
Can opener

Instructions
Dump beans and garbanzos into colander and rinse off goopy bean water.
If using fresh green beans and / or wax beans find a good radio program or TV show while you snap off the ends and break them into 2 inch pieces. You can steam them, blanch them or microwave them until they turn bright green and are cooked to taste. Err on the side of serving raw veggies. Don’t overcook.
If you get the frozen ones, your preparation process is to remove the beans from the freezer and chop them into segments approximately 1 inch long.
Peel onion and chop onion into small bits.
Take out serving bowl with lid (I believe in serving and storing in the same bowl, to save both water and time) and start with the sugar and the vinegar, Mix them together in the bowl. Add the salt. Then add the olive oil. Then dump in all the vegetables. Mix. Put in the refrigerator. Leave it there for a few hours until the green beans defrost and the flavors have a chance to mix. You may want to stir occasionally to get everything coated nicely.

Serve.