This Mexican Three Bean Salad recipe is a delicious mix of black, pinto and red beans with yellow and red bell peppers, poblano chili pepper and onion.
Remember in my Citrus Marinated Mexican Chicken from last week when I told you I had a great recipe for Mexican Three Bean and Three Pepper Salad?
Well… I hate to say I told you so, but…
Yowza! This bean and pepper salad has SO much flavor.
I decided to use dry beans in this instead of canned because they are so much cheaper and I use a really easy no-soak oven method. Just throw them in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, cover with water by an inch, and bake at 325 degrees for 75 minutes until soft. DONE.
If you absolutely MUST use canned beans, I suppose you can. (<— does that count as a pun?) Special kudos go to the first person who comments with the appropriate dried bean-to-canned bean conversion. I don’t have enough caffeine in me right now to do it myself.
Okay, so special kudos to Latricia on the conversion of 1 can of beans is equal to ½ cup dried beans, cooked. This conversion makes this recipe perfect to translate into canned beans – one can of each bean! Thank you Latricia!
Just make it easy and stick with the dried beans, okay?
Here are a few ideas of things to do with this Mexican 3 bean salad:
Serve it as a side dish with Grilled Citrus-Marinated Mexican Chicken.
Eat is by itself as a super high-protein, high-fiber lunch.
Use the leftovers to make:
Quesadillas
Nachos
Vegetarian Tacos
Soup
Enchiladas
Pretty much anything.
I could go on and on. There are so many leftover options for this Mexican bean salad recipe! Get creative and leave me a comment 🙂
It’s so super simple to make. Once you’ve cooked the beans, you can take a moment to be proud of yourself for cooking beans.
Then, you just chop up your peppers and onion, make a quick dressing in a mason jar
, then toss it all together in big bowl.
As you may have guessed from the name of this recipe, you’ll use three types of beans and three types of peppers.
You can cook the pinto beans and red beans together in the same pot, but cook the black beans separately or they will discolor your other beans and make them ugly. Trust me, you really don’t want to have poor, sad, ugly beans.
Red, yellow, and poblano peppers make up the colorful “three pepper” part. You could get crazy and use an orange bell pepper if you wanted to.
Ready for the yum factor? (<–should that be my tagline? HA)
Mexican Three Bean and Three Pepper Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 c. dried black beans
- 1/2 c. dried pinto beans
- 1/2 c. dried red beans
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 fresh poblano chili pepper
- 1 red onion - finely diced
- 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp. canned chipotle chili pepper in adobo sauce - stemmed, seeded, and minced
- 1/3 c. olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Sort through beans for any debris. Combine the pinto and red beans in a large oven-proof lidded pot and add enough water to cover the beans by one inch. Place the black beans in a separate oven-proof lidded pot and again add enough water to cover by one inch. Bake for 75 minutes, then stir and test to see if they are done. If not done, continue cooking beans in fifteen minute intervals until you have reached the desired firmness.
- Meanwhile, remove the stems and seeds from the peppers and dice into small, bean-sized pieces. Dice the onion and combine with the peppers in large bowl.
- In a mason jar or other container with lid, combine the vinegar, salt, black pepper, chipotle chili pepper, and olive oil. Shake until well emulsified.
- Once the beans have cooked, add them to the large bowl and drizzle in the dressing. Toss well to coat. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
- Use mason jar to make dressing.
NOTES
Nutrition
1 can of beans is equal to 1/2 cup dried beans, cooked. Making this recipe perfect to translate into canned beans – one can of each bean.
I love the ideas of a canned chipotle chili pepper in adobo sauce, and fresh cilantro. I’m definitely making this for a vegetarian potluck or for a family get together – we are not all vegetarians, but there are vegans amongst us, and I like to take food they can eat. My vegan DDIL is also starch free and oil free – this is something she can eat. Thanks a mill!
Special kudos go to Latricia!! Thank you 🙂