5 Bean Salad recipe

I love beans.  I love the colors, the varieties, the unique patterns, the different tastes; pretty much everything there is to beans.  And I especially love the fact that they are an inexpensive protein.

I've been wanting a good bean salad for several days now and finally decided to take the time to make one.  I sorted through my collection of bean packages, selected the ones that I thought would make a pretty salad, and set the beans to soaking overnight.

 They make a pretty picture, don't they?

The tedious part was just boiling the different beans for long enough to make them tender. Since I don't own 5 small pots I had to do this in stages. You can save time by just purchasing 5 cans of different varieties of beans, but I have more time than money right now, so starting with dried beans was my preferred method.

This recipe is pretty forgiving. You choose your bean varieties, decide which veggies you want to include, mix up the dressing and combine everything.

5 Bean Salad
The Beans
5 different varieties of beans (I used garbanzo, pinks, pinto, kidney, and black-eyed peas)
Either use 5 cans of beans OR 3/4 cup of each dried bean variety
If you use dried beans, soak them in water to cover for at least 4 hours or overnight. After they've soaked, boil each variety separately until the beans are tender.

The Vegetables
You can choose whatever veggies appeal to you. I think sliced radishes would be a very nice addition but I didn't have any on hand so I used these:

1/2 onion, minced
1/2 green pepper, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, peeled and minced

The Dressing
1 cup vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix everything together. Refrigerate for several hours.

Yum!