Mediterranean Bean Salad is a light and healthy salad with crisp green beans, garbanzo beans tossed in a light citrus dressing and topped with feta cheese and olives. (Gluten-free and Egg Free)
Why you are going to love our Mediterranean Bean Salad
Mediterranean Bean Salad is a breeze to put together and is packed with protein, vitamins, complex carbohydrates, is gluten-free and is happily a great vegetarian dining option. If you are vegan or lactose intolerant, like me, then just leave out the feta cheese. Feel free to swap out the beans or veggies with any items that you have on hand such as kidney beans, white beans, fava beans or even marinated artichokes. I think you get the idea.
This stifling tropical heat of Hong Kong makes me reminisce about trips to the Mediterranean. You can just picture those beautiful blue-green views of the oceans, brilliant blue skies and cool summer breezes brushing your hair. I feel better already.
A couple of years ago my dear husband brought me on a lovely trip that started off with a short plane ride into Marseille, France where we rented a car and drove along the French and Italian Rivieras and ended in Bologna, Italy. The beautiful views, food, sunsets, people and coast line is something that I will never forget.
One of my favourite things we did along the way is to take a ferry from Cannes to the little island of Ste-Marguerite. We walked along the forest and the aromatic smell of the wild rosemary growing was so romantic. I think rosemary should be an essential oil as it certainly makes one feel happy and hungry too.
My Mediterranean bean salad has dried rosemary that I ground up finely with my mortar and pestle. The smell of the rosemary reminds me of that special day overlooking the beach. Check out the olden day versions of tupperware down below. Trying to find the lid for each ones of these, must have been a nightmare... The French used these vessels to transport food and spices on their long voyages.
We continued our voyage on to Nice, France and enjoyed a delicious bowl of bouillabaisse just by the ocean side. Bouillabaisse would not have this delicious broth if it did not have onions and little bit of garlic and so I added a little bit of onions and garlic in my Mediterranean Bean Salad.
My husband and I drove further along the coast to Levanto, Italy a little sweet town just a little West of Cinque de Terre. I enjoyed so many delicious homestyle cooked Italian dishes that I never wanted to leave. Have you ever tried my Trofie de pesto? In addition, I enjoyed this delicious dish of stuffed aubergines(eggplants) that were out of this world with a touch of oregano. I also added a little touch of oregano to my Mediterranean Bean Salad.
Our final destination on our trip was Bologna, Italy. The farmers market was decorated in homegrown heirloom tomatoes. Do you know that smell that comes from a sweet homegrown tomatoes? The aroma is sweet and fresh and reminds me of living at home and picking tomatoes fresh from the garden. Of course we do not have fresh homegrown tomatoes here in Hong Kong, so my next bet was to use the sweet little Malaysian cherry tomato variety in my Mediterranean Bean Salad.
There are few countries left on my bucket list to visit in the Mediterranean. I long for the fresh air and blue skies and the views of the blue-green ocean once again. I added some Spanish olives and some feta from Greece to my Mediterranean bean salad as well to celebrate my destinations yet to be visited.
This Mediterranean bean salad is even great the day after as it has time for the flavors to mingle and that makes it a great dish to pass. If serving the next day, you may want to just squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon juice just to brighten it up a bit before serving to your guests.
How to Blanch Vegetables
This dish requires very little time to prepare and only uses one very simple cooking technique called blanching. Many of you blanch every day but for those that are not familiar with the word, blanching means to quickly boil your vegetable in salted hot water for a couple of minutes just until slightly tender and then immediately shock the vegetables in a bath of cold ice water to prevent further cooking and it keeps the vegetable very bright and colorful.
If you are looking for Mediterranean Healthy Recipes, you might also enjoy these...
5 Ingredient + 5 Minute Caprese Salad
Mediterranean Red Snapper Packets
Healthy Mediterranean Baked Fish
Mini Holiday Mediterranean Brie En Croute
Farfalle Aglio e Olio with Breadcrumbs
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Mediterranean Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 10 oz green beans
Can also us frozen green beans - water
enough to boil your string beans - 1 tsp salt
to salt the water bath for blanching - ice water
enough to soak your green beans after blanching - 15 oz garbanzo beans
also known as chickpeas - ½ cup edamame shelled- optional
- ½ cup olives (or any kind of olives you like)
- ½ cup tomatoes
chopped heirloom or sliced cherry tomatoes - 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ⅛ cup onion
finely chopped - 1 clove garlic peeled and chopped
- 1 tsp rosemary dried ground or fresh
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
ground - 2 tbsp cilantro
fresh chopped - optional - salt and black pepper to taste
- 4 oz feta cheese optional garnish
Instructions
- Wash and remove the ends from your string beans and cut in half. Fill up your pot half way with water and slat. Bring to a boil. Blanch your string beans for about 2 minutes and remove from boiling water and immediately plunge into iced cold water to stop the cooking process and to keep your beans bright vibrant green.
- In a large bowl add your blanched green beans, garbanzo beans, soy beans olives, tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, onions, garlic, rosemary, oregano, cumin, cilantro, salt and pepper and toss. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
- Garnish with feta cheese and serve. Enjoy
Creative and I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
Thank you. This mediterranean salad is filling and hearty with the beans and feta. A great salad to make any time of the year.
This is definitely my kind of salad! Funny you wrote this post - my husband and I are going to Provence and the Riviera next month and I'm so excited. I haven't been to the Mediterranean since I was a child, visiting my grandmother in France. Love your photos!
What a wonderful trip and the salad looks wonderful!
What a refreshing salad - love the combination of all types of beans and herbs. Beautiful shots of the riviera - we recently went to the Italian riviera few weeks ago and found our delicious onion focaccia there and now we regretted that we didn’t get a second one! Speaking of Trofie, I <3 TROFIE and they are so delicious in creamy sauces and pesto, too.
Your trip sounds so much fun, and love the sound of this salad!
I love this Mediterranean Bean Salad!!! and your photos are gorgeous!! Wow, you have traveled so much!! I am very envious!!! what great memories!!
Thank you Alice! I think travel really sparks the cooking ideas. I will always cherish these travel moments.
Gorgeous photos! And this bean salad looks o fresh and delicious, yum!
Thank you Kristi! I finally made the move up to a proper camera and I have so much to learn. However, I am having fun along the way.
Lovely and refreshing salad!!!
i would love to add oregano some more....
Thank you, I also feel like I need to use a little more oregano in my dishes too. I use basil a great deal, but other than pizza,oregano had taken a back seat. It is time to bring oregano back into the cooking spotlight. Take care, BAM
What a great summer salad and wonderful travel photos too.
What a lovely way to show your creativity, combining travel memories with ingredients is so lovely! And I love this salad! I was wandering along with you and reminiscing about my own trips through the Mediterranean! We have stifling heat here as well, off to cycle from Canmore to Banff.. I shall melt!
What beautiful photographs and a gorgeous, healthy salad. I'm ready to pack my suitcase but I'll eat the salad first!
Oh Bam! I love the pictures of your trip as well as your salad! It all looks so good!! So light and refreshing! 🙂
It sounds like a very memorable trip. And the salad looks delicious.
Sounds like my kind of salad- Light and fresh, but still wholly satisfying and hearty enough to sustain a day out in the summer sunshine. 🙂
Italy is one of the top 3 countries that I would love to visit when I get a chance (which means when I don't need to go back to Asia....). So pretty... thank you so much for sharing the pictures and I enjoyed dreaming! The salad looks very refreshing, and I can definitely make this and enjoy the taste of Italy... 🙂
I love your photos ... vacation and the salad! The bean salad may be dinner tonight ... just picked some grape tomatoes from the garden, thank you for sharing 😉
This salad is the perfect tip of the hat to the Mediterranean flavors and fresh goodness. I love everything about this dish. That said, I love your photos even more...your trip is on my bucket list as well. I can't wait to get there one of these days. I know I will never want to leave!
Beautiful photos of your trip! Love how you translated the mediterranean flavours into this salad. Beautiful colours and summer flavours! beautiful!
What a gorgeous bean salad! It always amazes me at how many ways there are to make bean salad! And thanks for sharing your trip with us. I've been to some of those places and they are spectacular. Thanks for bringing me back-I think!
What a lovely account of your trip - fabulous! Great summer salad too, although I would have to pick out the green beans for my husband - he reckons no matter what you do with them, they will make squeaky sounds on his teeth! All the more for me then.
Have a beautiful day Bam.
🙂 Mandy xo