Mediterranean Bean Salad
This Mediterranean bean salad recipe is so fresh and colorful! It features kidney beans and chickpeas with lemon and fresh herbs. Delicious!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 9, 2024
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This Mediterranean bean salad is one of my all-time favorite salads and sides. Bold claim, I know, but I can back it up. I’ve been loving this recipe for ten years running now!
This salad is crisp and satisfying, fresh and full of bright Mediterranean flavors. The recipe features hearty kidney beans and chickpeas, which balance crisp cucumber, celery and red onion. The remaining simple ingredients—lemon and olive oil, garlic and lots of fresh leafy herbs—yield truly irresistible results.
This Mediterranean-style salad is perfect for spring picnics, summer potlucks and cozy fall get-togethers. It’s a crowd-pleasing salad or side dish that suits most special diets, too. The recipe is vegetarian, vegan and gluten free.
With how quickly this salad comes together, it’s an easy addition to your weekend menu! It’s a simple chop, whisk and stir situation that’s ready in about 20 minutes. I hope this dish becomes one of your standby recipes, too.
How This Recipe Developed
Back in 2013, I found creative relief from a not-so-interesting office job in books like Ethnic Cuisine by Elisabeth Rozin. On the especially tough days, I treated myself to lunch at The Mediterranean Deli in Oklahoma City. It was my safe haven, a place where I could catch up with my favorite blogs while I waited for a delicious meal. I always walked out the door with a happy belly, feeling like everything was a little more right with the world.
I often miss their kidney bean salad, which was so much more exciting than it sounds. I found a recipe for a Lebanese bean salad in Ms. Rozin’s book that seemed similar. I tweaked it quite a bit, so I’m not confident that it qualifies as Lebanese. I omitted the tomatoes and added chickpeas, celery and garlic. It’s broadly Mediterranean in flavor profile.
If you’re looking for the lemon-parsley hummus that I originally shared with this recipe, here’s a PDF. Or, make my ultra-creamy hummus recipe and add up to 3/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley.
Watch How to Make Mediterranean Bean Salad
More Mediterranean-Style Salads to Make
Consider serving these salads with falafel, hummus or baba ganoush. Check out even more bean salads here.
- Cucumber Tomato Salad with Greek Dressing
- Favorite Chickpea Salad
- Fattoush Salad with Mint Dressing
- Mediterranean Tomato & Feta Dip
- Tabbouleh
Please let me know how your bean salad turns out in the comments. I love hearing from you.
Mediterranean Bean Salad
This Mediterranean-style bean salad recipe is delightfully crisp and satisfying. Its fresh flavors include kidney beans, chickpeas, lemon, garlic and leafy herbs. This healthy salad is vegan and gluten free, but mostly just delicious! Recipe yields about six 1-cup servings.
Ingredients
- 2 cans red kidney beans (15 ounces each), rinsed and drained, or 3 cups cooked kidney beans
- 1 can chickpeas (15 ounces), rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 small red onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 stalks celery, sliced in half or thirds lengthwise and chopped (about ¾ cup)
- 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
- ¾ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or mint
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice (about 1 ½ lemons)
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- Small pinch red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a serving bowl, combine the prepared kidney beans, chickpeas, onion, celery, cucumber, parsley and dill.
- Make the lemon dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper flakes until well blended. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until combined.
- Serve immediately for the most flavor, or let it marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for a couple of hours or longer. Leftovers will keep well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days. If necessary, wake up leftovers with a little sprinkle of salt or drizzle of lemon juice.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Ethnic Cuisine: How to Create the Authentic Flavors of Over 30 International Cuisines
by Elisabeth Rozin.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
“Thank you for sharing the article; it’s truly satisfying.”
This is a really good salad with a good amount of protein. The senior center was having a picnic in our local park, and everyone really liked the salad.
Great salad, very nutritious. I usually don’t eat beans, but I have been changing my diet to include all these ingredients.
Did you rename this salad? I believe that you called it Lebanese parsley salad.
Yes :)
How do you prepare the beans? Open the can?
See the steps in the recipe card. Yes, you can use canned beans. Be sure to drain and rinse.
I found this recipe ok, the onion and lemon juice seemed to dominate the flavours. So I added around 3/4 of a cup of mayonnaise (could use vegan mayo if available), 2 tsp Dijon mustard and around 1 to 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce mixed all together and added to original recipe and it was absolutely delicious
Thank you for sharing your feedback, Michelle.
I don’t love kidney beans, but really want to make this salad. Which bean is a good sub for kidney?
A white bean or you could try chickpeas.
This is one of my favorite recipes of all time! It’s so healthy and refreshing and absolutely delicious. I made it once because I was trying to get more beans into my diet and couldn’t believe how good it was. Now it’s a go-to for lunches and sides!
This salad looks great and clearly gets rave reviews. I am trying to reduce the amount of sodium we have in our diet. Do you think using less salt in this recipe would significantly change it?
Reducing added salt and including beans with no sodium added would also help.
This is my new favourite recipe.
Superb flavours that keep well in the fridge. Very versatile. For my second making I added some baby spinach and coriander that needed to be used.
Thanks Kate for another winning recipe!
You’re welcome, Kat! I appreciate your review.
Thank you. I look forward to trying out this recipe!
A very lovely salad. For someone who could do dairy I think feta crumbled on top would be delicious
I served it with fish, falafel and even an omelette. Perfect every time, just like all the other Cookie and Kate recipes. I
good recipe, I tried tahini to it, I recently tried a Mediterranean Bean Salad with tahini dressing, and it was absolutely delicious! The combination of hearty beans, vibrant vegetables, and creamy tahini was a burst of flavor in every bite. Plus, it’s so easy to make and incredibly nutritious. I’ll be adding this recipe to my regular meal rotation!
It was a little bland. I added some balsamic vinaigrette. I think also letting it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour would bring out the flavor of the garlic.
Thank you for your feedback, Sue.
Very pretty salad and nice change using kidney beans. Cut the salad part in half and made the full amount of dressing. That way I used the leftover dressing to freshen it up – only needed it on day three which was a pleasant surprise. I can see making this a lot for warm weather meals.
Thank you for sharing, Jill!
Tastes like you’re taking a bite into a garden! So fresh and delicious. I was craving a little bit more tang so I added a tsp of balsamic vinegar to my bowl individually (about 1.5 cups) and it was delicious. I probably won’t add it to the main batch because I can control the amount I use better in a smaller bowl. Yum!
Thank you for sharing your yummy recipes with helpful substitutions. I want to make this salad but I’m not a fan of either dill or mint. Is there something else you could recommend?
You could omit. Parsely?
This is an absolutely fantastic salad. I made my red kidney beans from scratch. Soaked 1 cup at night, and put it in the Instant pot for 20 mins in the morning.
They were a bit mushy so next time, I’ll pressure cook them for 15 mins instead of 20.
But otherwise another wonderful, wholesome recipe.
I loved the black eyed pea salad recipe as well.
I LOVE this salad!!!!! I’m diabetic & I love to eat!!! This salad keeps me balanced kinda. Ya know when you’re not hungry but you want to chew? Well, this takes the guilt away & it tastes wonderful. Even beats popcorn while watching movie.
Can I substitute kidney beans with black beans?
You can try it. I prefer it best as written.
We made this for a class reunion potlock and it was a big hit! My husband and I thought it could use some more ‘tang’, so when we got back home we tried adding some rice vinegar and it helped. Other ideas for adding more tang or zest to it?
I prefer this best as written. You can adjust to fit your tastes as needed.
Any chance to add fresh dill to recipes I take it…yummy. Can’t get enough.
That’s great to hear!
Delicious! Trying to eat more high fiber salads, and this is perfect. Very flavorful! Will be definitely making this again!
Delicious, healthy “real food.” I prefer garbanzo beans to kidneys, so I did 2 cans of thoseand 1 can of kidney. I also added a cup of bulgar wheat for an added fiber and protein boost. Next time I will make a lot more and eat it every day for lunch.
Thank you for sharing how you made this, Melissa!
Love this salad!
I made too much though and was wondering if you thought it would hold up in the freezer?
I’m not sure this is the best option for freezing, sorry!