Simple Bean Salad With Creamy Italian Dressing
The Perfect Healthy Side
Simple bean salad with creamy Italian dressing is the winter salad you have been searching for. Light, bright and delicious this salad doesn’t require a lot of ingredients.
You can prepare all the ingredients and use them for meal prep throughout the week. If you would like to add extra beans, that will be delicious as well.
You can also bulk this salad up with some prosciutto or rotisserie chicken.
Salad For Dinner
This salad makes a great dinner and an especially great lunch. The recipe for this Simple Dense Bean Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing has no meat, but you can add it if you wanted to.
I would personally add some prosciutto. You can even crisp up the prosciutto in a skillet if you like.
The method for crisping prosciutto is outlined in my Crispy Prosciutto Bites appetizer.
Simple To Make
The recipe is fairly simple, though I did use an immersion blender to make the dressing. If you have a whisk or a regular blender, however, you can make it without an immersion blender.
Dense Bean Salad Fame
Dense Bean Salads are quite the rage right now. I know they do not appeal to everyone as the thought of eating a bowl of beans can be off putting to some.
This salad adds some beans, as well as the nutritional value that comes along with it. If you ARE interested in a Dense Bean Salad, I have a delicious recipe for a Bean Salad on my site that is reminiscent of my days working at the Chicago grocery chain, Jewel-Osco.
There have been a lot of articles posted about Dense Bean Salads. It is quite fascinating to see all the benefits you can get from eating beans, besides the excessive gas that is!
The Perfect Mix Of Simple Ingredients
You will see on the printable recipe card that is posted below, that this salad has very few ingredients. Do not let this fool you.
The ingredients are few, but pack a punch of flavor. The dressing is what takes this over the top.
Simple Bean Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing
Simple bean salad with creamy Italian dressing, is the Winter salad you have been searching for. Light, bright and delicious. This salad doesnt require a lot of ingredients. You can prep all the ingredients and use them for meal prep throguhout the week. If you would like to add extra benas, that will be delicious as well. You can also bulk this salad up with some prosciutto or rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 Head of Iceberg Lettuce
- 1 Purple Onion, sliced thin
- 12 Provolone Cheese Slices, cut into squares
- 12 Pepperoncini Peppers
- 1 Can of Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 Heaping Tablespoon of Dried Italian Seasoning
- 3/4 C of Rice Vinegar
- 3/4 C of Olive Oil
- 1 T of White Sugar
- 1 t Salt
- 1 t of Black Pepper
- 1 Clove of Garlic, Grated
- 2 T of Hellmann's Mayonnaise
Instructions
- Wash, pat dry, and tear lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Do not use a knife as this causes the lettuce to turn brown faster.
- Halve your onion after removing the peel and slice it into thin strips.
- Cut your provolone cheese into squares.
- Rinse and drain your beans well. Make sure you give them a good rinse or they will make your salad very salty.
- Toss the lettuce with the beans, cheese, and the onions and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine your vinegar, olive oil, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, pepper and your grated garlic using a whisk blender or immersion blender. Blend it really well.
- Add the mayo to the dressing one tablespoon at a time and make sure it is well combined and creamy. I used my immersion blender to make sure that there were no chunks of mayo in the salad.
- Toss the salad with the dressing, or you can keep them separate and add the dressing to the salad when you are ready to eat.