Having a multi-purpose sauce in your recipe repertoire is endlessly useful — French vinaigrette is one such sauce. While it’s typically used as a salad dressing, it also works beautifully in slaws, potato salad, and here, in a simple bean salad.
This salad is perfect for summer entertaining as a light first course, and you can modify it to your taste and with what you have in hand. It also makes a great picnic option, as it can be made in advance and the flavor gets better each day.
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 ½ cups cooked cannellini beans)
Vinaigrette dressing (olive oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard, minced garlic)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional additions:
I often make this salad in the summer with a can of beans and whatever I find in the fridge.
You don't need exact quantities of the ingredients. Just start with some cannellini beans, whip up a vinaigrette to add (you'll use any leftovers later), and chop up a few additions to include. Taste and adjust — that's it!
You can find a link to the vinaigrette dressing recipe above — it's simply about three parts extra virgin olive oil to one 1 part vinegar (like sherry vinegar), 1 1/2 tsp of Dijon, 1-2 cloves of freshly minced garlic, and some salt & pepper.
Make the vinaigrette in a bowl or directly in a jar to store any leftovers. You can also add the vinaigrette ingredients to the beans, toss, taste, and adjust if you need a little more of one ingredient or another.
Add the additional ingredients, cover, and refrigerate if not serving immediately.
Serve cold or at room temperature. You can prepare it a few hours (or even a day) in advance for even better flavor.
Garnish with fresh parsley or basil, if desired.
