This summer bean salad, dressed with cherry tomatoes and pantry staples, is motivated by my being bad at standing up, but it’s also good for the summer afflictions of not being up for a bunch of chopping and not wanting to add a whole lot more heat to one’s dwelling.
A Midsummer Night's Beans
A main-dish salad of navy beans dressed with a tomato and roasted red pepper mix that goes together in the food processor.
Servings: 10 cups
Calories: 205kcal
Equipment
- pressure cooker
Ingredients
To cook the beans
- 450 g navy beans dry
- 710 g water
- 12 g salt
To dress the beans
- 28 g garlic
- 175 g red onion
- 340 g tomatoes grape or cherry
- 340 g roasted red peppers Mancini brand preferred
- 18 g salt
- 3 g dill dried
- 33 g white wine vinegar
- 33 g olive oil
- to taste pepper freshly ground
Instructions
To soak the beans:
- Sort through the navy beans for broken, shriveled, or discolored beans. Rinse in a sieve under running water, and turn into a large bowl. Cover with cold water, plus one inch. Allow to soak for eight hours. Drain and rinse.
- Alternately, place the sorted and cleaned navy beans in the pressure cooker, uncovered, and add water to cover the beans, plus one inch. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and allow to soak for one hour. Drain and rinse.
To cook the beans:
- Place the soaked navy beans, the measured water, and the salt for the beans in the pressure cooker. Stir to combine.
- Place the lid on the pressure cooker and secure it. Turn the stove heat to high and bring to pressure. When the cooker comes to pressure, turn the heat down to medium.
- Cook the beans under pressure for nine minutes (or the best duration for navy beans for your cooker), then perform a quick release.
- When the pressure has fallen, remove the lid.
- Drain the beans in a colander and turn them into a very large bowl. Retain the colander to use again. (The cooking liquid can be retained as aquafaba, or to boost nutrition elsewhere, if you like.)
- The beans can be placed in a storage container, refrigerated, and dressed at a later time if desired.
To dress the beans:
- While the beans are cooking, set up the food processor. Carefully install the knife blade.
- Peel the garlic and cut off the root ends.
- Add the garlic to the food processor. Turn on and allow the garlic to become finely chopped. Turn the food processor off.
- Cut the root ends off the onion; peel and chunk it. Add the chunked onion to the food processor. Pulse the food processor until the onion is roughly chopped.
- Rinse the tomatoes in the colander, drain them thoroughly, and add them to the food processor.
- Open the jar of roasted red peppers and turn them into the colander. Rinse them thoroughly under running water - this will reduce their pickled flavor. Shake dry in the colander and add to the food processor.
- Add the salt and dried dill to the food processor. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is reduced to small bits, but not puréed. Scrape down with a spatula if necessary while processing.
- Pour the contents of the food processor over the drained beans, scraping out the food processor with the spatula. Add the white wine vinegar, olive oil, and freshly ground pepper. Toss gently with the spatula to thoroughly combine. Taste for seasoning.
- Serve the dressed beans warm, room temperature, or chilled.
Notes
About the roasted red peppers: Some brands taste a lot more "jarred" than others - that pickle-y citric acid + calcium chloride flavor. Of the ones I've tried, I think Mancini retain the least of that after rinsing and draining.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 205kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1405mg | Potassium: 710mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 478IU | Vitamin C: 23mg | Calcium: 100mg | Iron: 3mg
Hello! I found your website via a search for veggie fritters, and I’m so glad that I did! I have Meniere’s Disease and am often too dizzy or too fatigued to cook, which makes it difficult to follow the strict low-sodium diet that keeps me more or less functional.
Low-effort, flavorful recipes that use tons of fresh veggies are exactly what I need, so your website is a dream come true. I can’t wait to try out your recipes!
Thanks for dropping by, Tove! I should warn you that I historically have been pretty heavy-handed with the salt to balance other strong flavors, and I know backing the salt out of a lot of my recipes will result in them being way too garlicky or too highly spiced. I have to eat a terribly dull very-low-sodium diet myself as well, but in terms of my cooking style (when I’m able to do it), I haven’t managed to change what I think makes for a good dish.