A substantial Spanish white bean salad with peppers, tomatoes, olives and a zippy dressing. It’s simple, healthy and packed full of flavour. It’s also quick and easy to prepare. Hands on time is less than fifteen minutes, though it does benefit from a lengthy marinade. Perfect as a vegan main, side or tapas.
I used to think bean salads were a bit boring. I’ve totally changed my mind now. Add the right ingredients and they are anything but.
Spanish White Bean Salad
Beans are very popular in Spain and white bean salads, ensalada de alubias blancas, pop up all over the country. However, they’re more typically found in southern Spain and are a speciality in the region of Murcia.
White bean salads are often served as tapas. If you’ve eaten out in Spain, you’ve probably come across one. Do let me know if you have.
The Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Their diet is one of the main reasons for this and their love of beans plays no small part.
The Spanish grow a number of different white bean varieties. They tend, however, to be on the larger side. Much larger than Italian cannellini, for example. Creamy, soft skinned butter beans are easy to get hold of and make an ideal substitute.
The Best Beans
When the predominant ingredient is beans in a salad, you want them to taste really good, so it’s worth going that extra mile and buying jarred beans rather than canned. Alternatively cook your own from dried.
There’s no doubt about it, tinned beans are super handy. I always used to cook mine from dried as they’re so much cheaper. They’re also a lot tastier. But life just seems to get busier and busier and although I’ll cook a batch of beans from time to time, I don’t do it as much as I should do.
There was a double bill all about beans on the Food Programme on BBC Radio 4 recently. I knew that dried beans cooked at home usually taste better than tinned beans. I also knew that our own homegrown beans tasted better too. But I didn’t know that jarred beans were a completely different thing to tinned beans.
Tinned beans use varieties that are developed for commercial growing and ease of harvesting. Jarred beans, on the other hand, tend to go for beans that are grown specifically for taste and texture. The skins are generally thinner and softer, the flesh creamier and the flavour more interesting.
The second programme was specifically on How Spain Does Beans, so do have a listen if you’d like to find out more. Both programmes are interesting.
Since I heard the programmes, I’ve been on the lookout for jarred beans. I thought they’d be really hard to get hold of. But as soon as I looked, I found them. And it’s absolutely true, the beans have a better texture and taste much nicer.
I’ve used them in this recipe for Greek butter beans in tomato sauce too.
White Bean Salad
Spanish white bean salad is a great make ahead dish. It’s naturally vegan and takes less than fifteen minutes to prepare. If you’re having a party, you can easily make it the day before. In fact, the beans benefit from a long marinade time, so the earlier the better.
If it’s really hot you might like to serve this fridge cold. Personally, I don’t like really cold food unless it’s ice cream. The flavours are less pronounced, the texture’s not as good and the cold hurts my teeth.
The salad will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for three days, though it’s at its best a few hours after making.
White bean salad makes a delicious meal on its own. Or serve it with crusty bread for something a bit more substantial and to mop up those zingy juices.
In Spain it’s often served as part of a tapas menu. It’s also useful as a side dish as well as in a party buffet or for potlucks. As you can make it well ahead, it’s also great for packed lunches and picnics. In fact it’s the perfect summer salad.
We enjoyed this particular batch with a creamy potato salad and plain lettuce leaves. The flavours zip around in your mouth for some time after finishing. It’s really quite delicious.
Ingredients
In a fairly simple salad like this, you really need ingredients that sing. Try and get the best of each one that you can. It really does make a difference.
White Beans
Use any white beans you like, though larger are better than smaller ones in this salad. I like the butteryness of butter beans. They’re also the most similar to the type of Spanish white beans typical of this recipe.
When we have them I use our own homegrown white runner beans. They’re delicious, but we don’t grow them every year as we like to try different beans for interest.
As mentioned in the previous section, cook your own from dried or use jarred beans rather than tinned if you can.
Peppers
Thick fleshed bell peppers are best for this Spanish white bean salad. You can use any colour you like, but green, yellow or orange contrast well with the red tomatoes and makes for a more colourful dish.
Tomatoes
Use the ripest, juiciest and most flavourful tomatoes you can find. Cherry tomatoes usually taste good and are super simple to prepare. But any good tasting tomato is fine.
Olives
You can use either black or green olives for this dish. However, I like to use black ones as they give a better colour contrast which makes the salad look more appealing.
It’s best to use pitted olives as it just makes life easier. Then all you need to do is slice them.
If using large olives, reduce the quantity from twelve to eight.
Parsley
We grow our own parsley and prefer the curly variety as it just seems more resilient to our UK climate. However flat leaf parsley is absolutely fine and probably more in keeping with Spanish cuisine.
You want to taste the parsley in this salad, so add a good handful.
Onion
You only need a small onion for this recipe. A sweet white Spanish onion is perfect, but an ordinary yellow onion is absolutely fine. That’s what I generally have available and that’s what I use.
Sherry Vinegar
Sherry vinegar has a milder and slightly sweeter taste than wine vinegar. It’s also Spanish.
If you don’t have sherry vinegar, substitute with rice wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar – in that order.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A well flavoured Spanish olive oil is perfect for this salad. It makes it more authentic. I didn’t have any though, so I used a Greek salad oil instead. It doesn’t really matter, but it’s a nice touch.
Garlic
As with most Mediterranean cuisines, garlic plays an important part in the food of Spain too. It is an integral ingredient in this Spanish white bean salad.
We harvested ours from the allotment three weeks ago, so we have plenty of fresh garlic to use at the moment. The fresher the better when it comes to garlic.
Smoked Paprika
Smoked paprika is not traditional to a Spanish white bean salad. It’s my personal take as I like the additional flavour and smoky notes it gives. But it’s entirely optional, so leave it out if you prefer.
Salt
Salt is a very personal thing. I mostly err on the side of caution and use less rather than more. Too much salt is not good for us after all. Having said that, beans need to be well seasoned, so I’ve added a bit more to this dressing than I normally would.
I mostly use grey sea salt for this sort of thing as it’s less refined and purportedly contains more beneficial minerals.
Cautionary Note
Jarred white beans are usually salted, whereas tinned beans are not. So you may want to reduce the amount of salt if using jarred.
Black Pepper
Freshly cracked black pepper gives lots more flavour than ready ground pepper. All you need are just a few twists of the pepper grinder to add a certain boldness to the vinaigrette.
Recent research has also found that black pepper increases the absorption of some essential nutrients found in other plants. It’s a win win situation. (Ref: Healthline)
Spanish White Bean Salad: Step-by-Step
As this is a simple white bean salad, it doesn’t take long to put together. However, it does need to marinade for a minimum of half an hour, though the longer the better. So a little planning ahead is required.
Step 1. Make Vinaigrette
Grate or press the garlic into a salad bowl. Add in the other dressing ingredients and give everything a quick whisk to combine and emulsify.
Step 2. Marinade Onion
Chop the onions finely, then add to the vinaigrette and stir. Do this whilst you prepare the beans. This allows the onion to mellow a little and lose some of its pungency.
Step 3. Prepare Beans
Drain the beans well through a sieve. If they come from a tin, give them a good rinse. Jarred ones don’t really need it as they don’t have that same taint. However I give them a light rinse anyway, to remove some of the salt and stickiness.
Leave to drain whilst you prepare the other salad ingredients.
Once they’re drained, give the sieve a quick shake to remove any surplus water, then tip into the oniony dressing. Use a large spoon or spatula to mix the beans in. Do this as gently as you can so as not to break them up.
Step 4. Prepare Remaining Ingredients
Whilst the beans are draining, wash and prepare the remaining ingredients. Halve, quarter or roughly chop the tomatoes, depending on size.
Core the pepper and remove any seeds, then chop into smallish chunks. Slice the olives into three or four, depending on size.
Finely chop the parsley. Once you’ve stirred the butter beans into the vinaigrette, add the remaining ingredients and give a careful, but thorough stir until everything is well combined.
Step 5. Marinade
Leave the salad to marinade for at least thirty minutes. The longer you leave it, the more the butter beans have time to soak up all those zippy flavours.
You can place the bowl in the fridge, but it’s fine left at room temperature for a couple of hours or so. It just depends when you’re going to eat it. If you’re making it for the next day, keep it in the fridge but remove at least thirty minutes before serving to allow it to come up to room temperature.
White Bean Salad: Make It Your Own
This Spanish style white bean salad is so simple, delicious and easy to prepare, you may want to leave well alone. However, smoked paprika is not to everyone’s taste and I’ve left that addition entirely optional.
Of course, sometimes a little extra is needed or wanted. Eggs and / or cheese, for example, make it a more substantial dish.
Optional additions:
- 60g (2oz) manchego cheese – cubed
- 2 hardboiled eggs – chop and mix in just before serving
- 1 tsp capers
- a pinch of chilli flakes – whisk into dressing
Other White Bean Recipes You Might Like
- Bunny chow (vegan butter bean curry in a bread bowl)
- Chunky vegetable bean soup (vegan)
- Greek butter beans in tomato sauce (vegan)
- Homemade baked beans on toast (vegan)
- Ribollita
- White bean burgers (vegan)
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this easy Spanish white bean salad, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more salad recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course. I also have a useful recipe collection post for all the summer salad recipes you will ever need.
Choclette x
Spanish White Bean Salad. PIN IT.
White Bean Salad – The Recipe
White Bean Salad: Spanish Style
Ingredients
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 400 g tinned white beans of your choice equivalent to 250g (8-9 oz) cooked white beans (I used jarred butter beans)
- 1 large bell pepper green, yellow or orange are best
- 8 cherry tomatoes or 4 small or 2 large
- 1 small bunch of parsley roughly chopped
- 12 black olives pitted and sliced
Salad Dressing
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic grated
- ½ tsp sea salt or to taste
- good grinding of black pepper
- ½ tsp smoked paprika (optional)
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk all the salad ingredients together until they’ve emulsified. It only takes a few seconds.1 tbsp sherry vinegar, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 clove garlic, ½ tsp sea salt, good grinding of black pepper, ½ tsp smoked paprika
- Add the onion and stir in whilst you deal with the other ingredients. This helps to make the onions less pungent and consequently more palatable.1 small onion
- Drain the beans through a sieve and rinse briefly with running water. Leave to drain whilst you prepare the pepper, tomatoes, parsley and olives.400 g tinned white beans of your choice
- Give the sieve a good shake to remove any excess water. Then, using a large spoon or spatula mix the beans into the dressing as gently as you can so as not to break them up.
- Add the tomatoes, peppers, parsley and olives and give another gentle stir to combine1 large bell pepper, 8 cherry tomatoes, 1 small bunch of parsley, 12 black olives
- Leave to marinate for at least thirty minutes before serving. However a couple of hours will allow the beans to soak up the dressing.
Notes
Optional Extras
- 60g (2oz) manchego cheese – cubed
- 2 hardboiled eggs – chop and mix in just before serving
- 1 tsp capers
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing this recipe for Spanish white bean salad with Sew White for #CookBlogShare.
Sisley White says
What an exciting idea! Cannot wait to make it!
Choclette says
It’s such an easy dish to make and super healthy too.
Rebecca - Glutarama says
Searching for salad idea in this heat and this looks like the perfect recipe for a picky-bits style dinner – great recipe.
Choclette says
Love the idea of a picky-bits style dinner. Might have to adopt that term.
Lisa says
Oh my gosh, this is SO yummy! Maybe my new go-to lunch recipe, I enjoyed it so much. My husband doesn’t even like beans and he devoured the leftovers I had saved for the next day. Great recipe!
Choclette says
Lisa, so glad you were able to impress your husband. I’m a bean evangelist, so doubly pleased. Thanks for letting me know.
Janice says
What a delicious combination of flavours, ideal for hot days.
Choclette says
Indeed and there are quite a few of those at the moment. Really need these no cooking required recipes when it’s like this.
Tavo says
Very tasty salad! Perfect for meal prep. I loved all those Mediterranean flavors in one bowl.
Choclette says
Glad you liked it Tavo. White bean salad is perfect for meal prepping.
Katie says
Such an incredible recipe! I’ve been loving white beans recently, and this salad is the perfect way to eat more of them!
Choclette says
Beans are one of my staples, but I like to ring the changes and white beans work brilliantly in this recipe.
Nancy says
Nice white bean salad with zippy Spanish flavours. It’s our go to salad this week for meal prep. Thanks
Choclette says
It’s a fab salad for meal prep. Glad you like it and thanks for letting me know.
sherry M says
i love this kind of salad and i make it often. i love beans !:)
Choclette says
Yay! Beans are fabulous. I’m a big fan too.
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
What a beautifully vibrant and very delicious-looking salad. Perfect for summer and filled to the brim with goodness.
This one is definitely on my summer make list! Off to Pin xxx
Choclette says
Thank you Kate. It’s such a simple salad really, but quite delicious.
Lesley says
I eat a lot of salads and this is exactly the sort of salad dish that I enjoy eating, a great side salad when the BBQ is on but also the ideal salad main too.
Choclette says
Yes indeed Lesley, it’s a very versatile salad. Good for so many occasions.