3 Bean Salad With Dressing

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Loaded with chickpeas, red kidney beans, and green beans and served with a tangy yet sweet apple cider vinegar dressing, this flavorful Southern 3 bean salad recipe is a personal favorite.

Spoonful of 3 bean salad with dressing.

Classic three-bean salad is one of my favorite snacks, sides, and meals. I could pretty much live on this stuff… and sometimes do! In fact, when meal planning, I like to make a big batch of this 3 bean salad recipe on the weekends and then have it at the ready all week long whenever I get a hankering. This is also a wonderful salad to take to cookouts, church dinners, and family reunions.

The best thing is, it’s so easy to make. Simply drain the beans, combine them with the chopped onion and diced pimentos, then add the dressing. Because spoiler: it’s not a Southern three-bean salad without dressing. Our salad dressing is sweet, tangy, and so irresistible, thanks to a combination of cider vinegar, sugar, minced garlic, salt and pepper, and olive oil. The hardest part about this recipe is you need to let it marinate for several hours so that the dressing soaks into each bite. I make mine the night before and it’s ready for me the next lunchtime. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

Plus, the beans stay nice and firm so the salad will easily keep for a week or more in your fridge. With a sweet tang and lots of flavors, once you try this recipe you may find yourself eating it as often as I do! If you do, let me know and we’ll form a support group that has regular meetings… around bowls of 3 bean salad 😉.

Labeled ingredients for 3 bean salad with dressing.

Recipe Ingredients

  • Apple cider vinegar
  • Chickpeas
  • Green beans
  • Kidney beans
  • Onions
  • Sugar
  • Oil
  • Minced garlic
  • Pimentos
  • Salt and pepper

How to Make a Recipe for 3 Bean Salad

Add beans to colander and rinse well.

To start with, dump all of your canned beans in a colander and rinse them really well under cold water.

We want to get all of their little can juices gone so we can replace them with the flavors of our 3 bean salad dressing recipe.

Note: You are only draining the beans, not the pimentos. We want to keep that pimento juice in the salad for more flavor.

Place sugar, cider vinegar, oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper in a mason jar.

Place sugar, cider vinegar, oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper in a mason jar.

Shake dressing jar well.

Screw the lid on tight and shake the mess out of that.

Dressing in jar.

Or you can just give it a good shake for about 10 seconds.

But where is the fun in that?

It will look like this when it all comes together.

Place all ingredients minus dressing in mixing bowl.

Place your drained and rinsed bean mixture, chopped onion, and pimentos along with their jar juices in a large bowl.

Pour dressing into mixing bowl.

Pour the dressing over.

Give salad a good stir then refrigerate overnight.

Give it a big old stir.

3 bean salad in serving bowl.

Refrigerate Overnight

Now, don’t go eating this now because it isn’t 3 bean salad yet. Put this in the fridge for several hours (I prefer overnight).

After that, give it another really good stir and return it to the fridge for several more hours.

I let mine refrigerate overnight and then stir it up really well again in the morning.

It will be ready by lunch.

If you eat it before letting it marinate, stirring it real good, and then letting it marinate again, you’re going to be missing out on that punch of flavor in every bite that you really want. So trust me on this and make it the night before.

Big bowl of 3 bean salad.

Then, if you really want to do it how I do, get a big old bowl of this for your lunch.

Spoonful of 3 bean salad.

AWWWW YEAH!

As a matter of fact, I’m typing this in between bites!

Storage

Leftover salad will last in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Recipe Notes

  • If you don’t want a big salad, simply half the ingredients.
  • You can use any beans you like, including garbanzo beans, pinto beans, navy beans, or cannellini beans.
  • For extra flavor, add some chopped fresh herbs to the salad, like fresh parsley, basil, mint, tarragon, dill, or cilantro. Another option is chopped green onion.
  • Speaking of extra flavor… you can also add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard to the salad dressing.
  • Add some crunch via diced celery stalks, green or red bell pepper, and/or cucumber.
  • Substitute white onion for red onion if you prefer.
  • You can use fresh green beans in this three-bean salad instead of canned green beans. However, you’ll need to cook them in boiling water until tender first and then let them cool before adding them to the salad.

Recipe FAQs

What kind of vinegar should I use?

I recommend apple cider vinegar. You can certainly use white vinegar if you prefer or if that is what you have. Cider vinegar has a wonderfully unique flavor, but white vinegar would be good as well.

What kind of oil do I use?

I am using olive oil but you do not have to. Vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, etc would work just as well. I am using olive oil because this bottle has started collecting dust and I’d like to be done with it. I literally had to wipe the dust off of the top with a damp towel before I put it in this picture.

What does 3 bean salad go with?

To make this into the perfect main meal this summer, serve your 3 bean salad with chicken. Whether that’s roast chicken, fried chicken, pulled BBQ chicken, or grilled chicken tenders.

You may also enjoy these recipes:

Fresh Green Beans

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Aunt Charlotte’s Frito Bean Salad

Sweet And Sour Green Beans

Southern Butter Beans Recipe

Serving bowl of 3 bean salad with dressing.

3 Bean Salad

This flavorful Southern 3 bean salad recipe is loaded with chickpeas, red kidney beans, and green beans and served with a sweet yet tangy apple cider vinegar dressing.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Chill Time: 10 hours
Total Time: 10 hours 10 minutes
Course: Salad
Cuisine: American
Keyword: beans, salad
Servings: 4
Calories: 185kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas
  • 2 15-ounce cans dark or light red kidney beans
  • 2 15-ounce cans cut green beans
  • 1 4-ounce jar diced pimentos with juice
  • 2 diced onions

Dressing

  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2/3 cup olive oil or oil of your choice, vegetable is fine
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

  • Place all canned beans in a colander and rinse well.
    2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, 2 15-ounce cans dark or light red kidney beans, 2 15-ounce cans cut green beans
  • In a mason jar (or bowl), place sugar, vinegar, oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Place the lid on and shake well to mix.
    1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup white sugar, 2/3 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper
  • Place beans in a large bowl. Add chopped onion and pimentos with juice. Pour dressing over all and stir well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for several hours (preferably overnight).
    2 diced onions, 1 4-ounce jar diced pimentos with juice
  • Important: A few hours before serving, stir again really well and return to the fridge to continue marinating.

Nutrition

Calories: 185kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

 

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123 Comments

  1. Your 3-Bean Salad has been on my go-to-list a long time — only mine’s never a 3-bean recipe! I add chopped celery and bell pepper (any color) and rinsed black beans, whole kernel corn, (even hominy) and any other beans I happen to have! So you can tell I also “mess around with” the dressing as I feel like it!
    Isn’t it fun to prepare and share!?!?

  2. Christy, Saturday I went to the library to pick up two books that I’d reserved to be transferred to my location for me from another branch location. Much to my surprize, I spied your latest book “Come Home to Supper” I was so excited and came home and started reading through it and am writing down what I want to try. First recipe is Coca-cola roast., then fried cabbage, beef kabobs in oven, Rick’s favorite pork roast for starters. Bought a head of cabbage this morning.

    Did you have another book that was published before this one? Name?

    I used to make a delicious bean salad but it makes so much that I stopped making it a long time ago.. I just buy the jar or get it off the salad bar since I’m the only one here that likes it. Can’t eat it too often as it’s loaded with sodium.

    Came across some website last evening that showed you can use your slow cooker(crock pot)for baking potatoes and baked sweet potatoes.. Of course, you pierce the potatoes, then wrap in aluminum foil before setting them in the crock pot. Sure beats turning the hot oven on..so will have to try that recipe too.

    I love the stories you tell your children; when they are grown and married can you imagine the stories/memories they’ll share with their own children? Hope you’re around to witness it.

    Have any good bread pudding recipes in your box or noggin? We use honey wheat bread, not white.

    1. Hi Betty!! I do have another cookbook, it is called “Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family”
      I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying “Come Home To Supper”!!

  3. My grandmother served my sister and I mostly milk coffee in small cups, white with a green stripe around it like those in a diner. I still have mine. Just about everything I know about being a grandmother I learned from her. So fun that we share a common memory of our grandmamas.

  4. An old time favorite of mine! Haven’t made it in some time but I’m thinking now is the time. Love your website & posts!

  5. I have a diabetic hubby & he loves his 3 bean salad…me not so much. I’ll be making this so he can snack on it & have it as a side dish! I keep renewing your cookbook “Southern Plate” from the library. I know, I should just buy a copy for myself. I think I have renewed it like 10 times! 🙂

  6. Just found your site last night while researching some vintage Pyrex dishes my sister and I found at Goodwill. I loved everything about the site and could not wait to text my sister about it! We texted back and forth until late in the night sharing things we enjoyed about your site. I signed up for your newsletter and could not wait to read it this morning. I texted my sister again and said you have to read the newsletter and text me back. The recipe for three bean salad was one our mother made every time we came home for a visit. Then you talking about grandma coffee, our grandmother made us coffee just like that when we were little. Oh what wonderful memories all of it brought back. Can’t wait to try your mother’s recipe for French Mint Tea. We used to go pick mint from our mother’s flower bed for our tea. Wow, I could not believe, I felt like it had been written for me! You are doing a fantastic job sharing your experiences with others and I can’t wait to continue reading and sharing. I sent my sister pictures today using the iPhone waterlogue app! We loved that too! Made some very cute pictures of our grandchildren using it! Thanks for the blessings today and keep up the great works!

  7. thanks for reminding us to take time….love making memories!! thanks for reviving some of mine.

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