Try a refreshing bean pasta salad if you're craving a cold salad for warm summer days. With thinly sliced red peppers and onions for a slight crunch and a light homemade Italian dressing, this vegetarian salad is perfect as a hearty side dish for a potluck, barbecue or backyard party!
Another hearty summer salad is this potato salad with dill pickles. And if you love beans, here's a three bean salad with pickled onions.
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What is special about this bean pasta salad?
This pasta salad is just one of the most satisfying salad in my repertoire of summer salads... in the same league as my spinach and arugula salad and rustic Italian tomato salad. Besides the pasta, it has crunchy peppers, onions, and two kinds of beans. It comes together in a snap and needs no heating. Plus, it has a fantastic homemade dressing that makes the salad shine.
Speaking of the dressing, we are making a light and easy Italian dressing that transforms the salad from just meh to absolutely irresistible! In fact, the dressing is the unsung hero of this recipe, so it's totally worth making it from scratch rather than opening a store-bought bottle. Don't worry, it comes together in mere moments, but the little extra effort will result in a pasta salad that stands apart from the hundreds of pasta salads you see online that use bottled dressing from a supermarket shelf. Guaranteed!
The salad pairs perfectly with grilled meats and hamburgers, but it's substantial enough to have on its own as a vegetarian option. There's no mayo or cream to make it heavy either, it's pretty customizable... there's a lot of leeway when it comes to the choice of pasta, crunchy veggies and beans.
So many reasons to make it.. why are you waiting?!
More light and easy summer salads: strawberry and cucumber salad, butter lettuce salad with mandarin oranges, strawberries and avocado, and cucumber and greek yogurt salad.
Ingredients
MAIN INGREDIENT NOTES
1. Pasta: Choose any pasta shape that can trap the dressing in its nooks and crevices. I used Fusilli, but you can go with rotini, bow-tie pasta, rigatoni etc.
2. Beans: Again, I had a can each of kidney beans and chickpeas, so I used those, but there's nothing stopping you from going for black beans, pinto beans, Great Northern beans or any other variety of beans that you fancy.
3. Vegetables: Onions and red peppers add a nice crunch and colour. More options could be chopped celery, baby carrots, bean sprouts.. or other crunchy veggies.
ITALIAN DRESSING INGREDIENT NOTES
1. Maple syrup: The maple syrup in the dressing can be substituted with honey or even a tablespoon of brown sugar. Being in Canada, I always have a bottle of maple syrup at hand because I just love the sweet caramel and woody notes of pure maple syrup... but honey or brown sugar work too.
2. Red wine vinegar: Substitute with white wine vinegar if you wish (lighter and milder compared to red wine vinegar), but don't skip the vinegar altogether as it adds a tangy and bright flavor to salads.
3. Olive oil: Choose a good quality extra virgin olive oil for the salad and not 'pure' or 'light' olive oil.
How to make homemade Italian dressing
It's the simplest thing in the world to make the Italian dressing. Assemble all the ingredients, put them in a mason jar with a tight lid and shake vigorously until well mixed and the dressing is emulsified.
Alternatively, you can put the ingredients in a deep bowl and use a wire whisk to combine them. I prefer the former method.. but it's up to you.
Note: The amount of dressing in this recipe is just enough for the servings of salad the recipe yields. There will be no leftover dressing, so If you like it and want to use it later too, make a larger batch and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
Pasta cooking tips
If you want perfectly done pasta for the salad, see these tips:
1. Cook the pasta well, not al dente: In a cold salad like this one, there's nothing more off-putting than hard, chewy pasta. Since pasta hardens as it cools down and we are not reheating the salad, you will need to cook the pasta slightly longer than you would for a warm, sauce based dish. For example, the instruction on the packet of fusilli I had was to cook it for 8 minutes to reach al dente cooking, but I cooked it for 10 minutes so that it was slightly softer than al dente.
2. Add a little oil to the pasta water: To prevent the pasta from sticking to each other, add about ½ teaspoon oil to the water.
3. Season the pasta water generously: Pasta tastes bland if not salted properly. Add enough salt to the water so that the pasta is salted through. The amount of salt depends on the water, of course, but as a rule of thumb, add 1-1.5 tablespoons of salt per 4-5 quarts (16-20 cups) of water.
4. Drain the pasta under cold running water once cooked: If you don't do this, the pasta will continue to cook and become too soft. It will also stick to each other and hard to separate once cooled. However, once you have thoroughly rinsed it with cold water, you can keep it aside and it will be fine.
How to make the salad
Once you have made the dressing and cooked the pasta, all that's left is to assemble the salad, a super-easy step.
Put all the main ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over it and mix gently with a large salad spoon. And just like that your salad is ready!
Though you can dig into it at once, try and keep the salad in the fridge for at least an hour before serving so that the flavors get a chance to meld together. This salad tastes even better the next day, so you can easily make it a day in advance to when you plan on serving it. Neat, right?
Top Tips
1. Make sure you drain the pasta well before adding the dressing. There shouldn't be any water remaining in the pasta when you are ready to assemble the salad.
2. Slice the onion and red pepper into long fine strands so that they get distributed evenly and provide a balanced crunch, without being too chewy or overwhelming.
3. Give the dressing a good stir before adding it to the salad. If it's been sitting for some time on the countertop, the ingredients will separate. So shake it up, baby!
Did you try this bean pasta salad recipe? Do leave a recipe rating and review in the comments section below.
Bean Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing
Equipment
- Big cooking pot for boiling the pasta
- colander for draining the pasta
- Small mason jar or bowl for making the dressing
- Big salad bowl for assembling the salad
Ingredients
Italian Dressing Ingredients
- ⅓ cup olive oil extra virgin
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes optional
- ¾ tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper ground
Main Salad Ingredients
- 16 oz fusilli Or rotini pasta
- 1 can kidney beans 19 oz or 540 ml can, drained and rinsed
- 1 can chickpeas 19 oz or 540 ml can, drained and rinsed
- 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- ½-1 red onion small, thinly sized
Instructions
Preparation
- Slice the red pepper and onion thinly and mince the garlic.
- Open the kidney beans and chickpeas cans and rinse the beans well under cold tap water. Drain the beans well and keep aside.
Make the Italian dressing
- Put all the ingredients listed under Italian dressing in a mason jar with a lid and shake vigorously until the mixture is well combined. Alternatively, put the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and whisk well with a wire whisk until well-combined.
Cook the pasta
- Put a pot filled with water on the stovetop and add 2 tablespoon sea salt and 1 teaspoon cooking oil. Allow it to come to a rolling boil, then add the pasta. Cook the pasta for 10 minutes, stirring it every now and then to avoid clumping. The pasta is cooked until soft but firm, NOT al dente.
- Once the pasta is cooked, transfer it to a colander in the kitchen sink and drain the pasta water. Make sure to rinse the pasta in cold running water for a few seconds. Allow all the excess water to drain away, then keep it aside.
Assemble the salad
- Put the ingredients listed under 'Main Salad Ingredients' (cooked pasta, drained kidney beans and chickpeas, sliced red pepper and onion) in a large salad bowl.
- Pour the prepared Italian dressing over the salad and gently stir with a salad spoon to mix. Cover with cling foil and keep in the refrigerator for at least an hour (or more) to allow the flavours to meld together, then serve cold.
Notes
- Go for white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar if that's what you like.
- If you don't have fusilli, any pasta that the dressing can cling to works, for example, rotini, farfalle, rigatoni etc.
- The choice of beans is also flexible. Use the beans of your choice - navy, pinto, black beans, cannellini to name a few.
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