Bean Salad

Servings: 10
From: Allrecipes.com


Ingredients:

1 - 14 oz can green beans
1 - 14 oz can wax beans
1 - 15 oz can red kidney beans
1 - 15 oz garbanzo beans
1 - 15 oz can black beans
1 - red onion, chopped
1 - green pepper, chopped
3/4 cup - red wine vinegar
3/4 cup - white sugar
3/4 cup - vegetable oil
3/4 tsp - ground dry mustard
1/2 tsp - dried tarragon
1 1/2 tsp - dried cilantro

Directions:

In a large bowl, layer the beans, onion and green pepper. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, mix the vinegar, sugar, oil, mustard, tarragon and cilantro. Cook and sir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and pour over bean mixture. Stir until all ingredients are coated. This is best if it is left to marinate for a few hours in the refrigerator, and stirred occasionally.

So above is the original recipe. I made it (with a couple of changes) last night to take with us over to our friends (Kathryn and Leif) for dinner. When posting this I discovered a couple of variations I am going to try. Below is my most current favourite version. I am going to try it with corn, celery and green onion added the next time I make it. I think I may also increase the tarragon, decrease the cilantro, delete the romano beans, add a green pepper and allow the dressing to cool before pouring over the beans.

Ingredients

1 can green beans
1 can wax beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can romano beans
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro


As a side note I had a wonderful visit with my dear friend Kathryn. We had a favourite and easy meal of burgers, sliced veggies, chips, bean salad and chilled iced tea. It was a great way to finish what otherwise was an extremely long and hot day - there is nothing like catching up with dear friends and seeing how their children have grown and their homes have changed. It is amazing how busy our lives get and how infrequently we seem to get together. Kath and Leif have developed this great sand play area for the boys, it even has a slide that goes from the deck down to the sand area.

I am thankful for wonderful friends like Kathryn and Leif, for a husband that changes his work schedule so we can get together with our friends and for chilled iced tea.