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Need a quick and easy meal prep salad for the work week? It’s time to raid the pantry and put together this simple but delicious dense bean salad made with beans, peppers, and tomatoes.
When it comes to food trends, Tiktok and Instagram have a huge influence. From the viral Jennifer Aniston salad to the sleepy girl mocktail, it’s fun to give the latest viral trend a try in my own kitchen. If you’re looking for a new one to add to your list, the protein-packed dense bean salad is a delicious one that is also good for you!
This dense bean salad is super simple to put together and works well for meal prep since the flavors only get better with time as it chills in the refrigerator.
The base for this salad is beans (of course), with chopped veggies for crunch, and spiced with chili powder and cumin. Eat this straight from the container or pack some scoops-shape tortilla chips for picking up bites.
This salad is allergen and diet friendly since it’s vegan, gluten free, and dairy free.
Explore even more healthy and filling options in my list of healthy salad recipes!
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What is a Dense Bean Salad?
So what exactly is a dense bean salad or a DBS for short? The term was coined by a Tiktocker named Violet Witchel who went viral for her meal-preppable bean salads.
If you watch her videos, you’ll see that her salads use a combination of beans, veggies, herbs, meat, and cheese with a homemade vinegar-based dressing.
She calls them “dense” because the salads use beans as the base instead of lettuce – which means they’re heartier and more filling than a lettuce-based salad.
Without the lettuce, dense bean salads are also great for meal prep since they don’t get soggy in the fridge.
Ingredients for Dense Bean Salad
Use these simple and fresh ingredients packed with nutritional value to make this delicious dense bean salad recipe.
- Canned Beans: use a combination of three types of beans for this recipe. Honestly, any combination of beans will work so feel free to get creative. The recipe as written includes chickpeas, black beans, and kidney beans.
- Corn: fresh or frozen corn works equally well for this recipe. If using frozen, thaw in the microwave before tossing into the salad.
- Tomatoes: I love adding tomatoes to this salad because they not only add flavor and color but also help marinate the beans.
- Onion and Bell Pepper: these both add flavor, crunch, and color to this simple recipe. If you don’t have red onion, shallot can be used as well. Feel free to use any color bell pepper – I picked red but green, yellow, and orange all work as well.
- Cilantro: fresh herbs like cilantro add delicious flavor and color to the finished salad.
- Jalapeno: feel free to adjust the amount of jalapeno based on your preferred spice level. I find that the spice level can vary from pepper to pepper so taste before adding to your salad. If you want to try something different, use pickled jalapenos instead.
- Chili Powder and Cumin: add flavor to the beans in this recipe.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: creates a simple salad dressing.
- Red Wine Vinegar: I like using red wine vinegar for the vinaigrette dressing for this salad. However, you can substitute with either balsamic vinegar or a white vinegar.
- Sea Salt: be generous with your salt to make sure there’s enough to help enhance the flavor in this simple salad.
Variations
Add More Protein: feel free to add chopped, cooked chicken breast or rotisserie chicken for extra protein.
Try Different Beans: feel free to make this recipe your own by trying other beans like butter beans, white beans (like cannellini beans), lima beans, pinto beans, or even black-eyed peas.
Make it Spicy: if you want to add more heat, use more fresh jalapeno or add some of your favorite hot sauce.
Add a Whole Grain: add even more fiber and protein by mixing in 1 cup of cooked quinoa into this salad.
How to Make Dense Bean Salad
This healthy dense bean salad recipe is simple to put together in a few steps.
Prep Salad Ingredients: Drain and rinse the canned beans. Chop all of your vegetables (tomatoes, pepper, jalapeno, onion, and cilantro).
Toss Salad: Gently toss together the beans, corn, tomatoes, onion, pepper, jalapeno, and cilantro in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Toss to coat in the dressing.
Chill and Serve: Chill for at least 1 hour to overnight. Toss beans again once more before serving. Give it a squeeze of lime, taste, and add more salt if needed – then enjoy!
Tools You’ll Need
- Large salad bowl
- Can opener
- Measuring cups
How Should I Serve Dense Bean Salad?
I love serving this dense bean salad with tortilla chips and using them to scoop up bites of the salad. You can also add this to a tortilla with some cheese and lettuce and serve it as a wrap.
Of course, you can also use it as a topping for a lettuce salad.
How Long Does Dense Bean Salad Last in the Fridge?
Store your dense bean salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I like to shake the container before dishing out to make sure the dressing gets redistributed over the salad.
How Many Calories in Dense Bean Salad?
One serving of this dense bean salad provides 235 calories, 11 grams of protein, and a whopping 10 grams of fiber.
If you want to bump up the protein, add in some chicken, chopped cheese (like cheddar or colby jack) or serve this salad as a side with a protein of your choice.
This salad is rich in heart healthy fats from the olive oil while being low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
Dense Bean Salad
Equipment
- Large salad bowl
- Can opener
- Measuring cups
Ingredients
- 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 3/4 cup fresh corn, or thawed frozen corn
- 1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup diced red bell pepper
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 jalapeno pepper, chopped
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½-1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the canned beans.
- Gently toss together the beans, corn, tomatoes, pepper, cilantro, jalapeno, and cilantro in a large bowl.
- Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Toss to coat in the dressing.
- Chill for at least 1 hour to overnight. Toss beans again once more before serving. Give it a squeeze of lime, taste, and add more salt if needed – then enjoy!
