5 Canned Beans To Keep On Hand For Your Dense Bean Salads

Finding easy dinner entrées that just as good for lunch as they are for dinner may be difficult — and it can be even more troubling if you're someone who adheres to a vegan or vegetarian diet. Meatloaf and beef chili may be out of the cards, but luckily, TikTok's newest trending food concept, the dense bean salad, is at your service. 

While the word "dense" might be a bit of a turnoff to you, it really shouldn't be. This dish is as simple to bring together as it is light. It's comprised of a medley of different beans, veggies, sometimes (but not always) meat, and a dressing. The bean salad can be made at the start of the week and left to meld in the fridge so the flavors can build on one another. The exact ingredients you use are totally up to you, but all of the recipes swirling out there on the internet are made with one common ingredient: beans. 

Although you can use dried beans that have been adequately cooked and prepared, the easier way to whip up a bean salad would be to use the canned variety, which just needs to be drained, rinsed, and added to a salad. Here are some of the best types of canned beans to have on hand when the craving for a dense bean salad strikes.

Chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) are one of the tastiest and most versatile types of beans out there. These beans, which have a light yellow-colored skin, round, nut-like shape, and mild flavor, are often utilized in Mediterranean cuisine. If you've ever enjoyed pita and hummus, chances are you've eaten garbanzo beans — though hummus can be made with almost any type of bean, the neutral flavor of the chickpea makes it quite popular for this spread.

Chickpeas are quite mealy, and compared to other beans, they have a much higher flesh-to-skin ratio. This makes them a great starter bean for a dense bean salad, as each mouthfeel will be filled with more "meat" rather than the chewy, slightly rubbery shell that pushes many folks away from enjoying beans in the first place. Before you add the canned chickpeas to your salad, just be sure to drain all of that liquid, called aquafaba, to ensure that your chickpea-based dense bean salad is indeed dense rather than watery. 

Since garbanzo beans are endemic to the Mediterranean, we'd recommend pairing them with other regional flavors. Consider adding a briny, salty flavor with crumbled feta, and pair it with sharp flavors like chopped red onion, garlic, and fresh tomatoes. The neutral flavor of the chickpeas also makes them an excellent pairing for an Indian-inspired dense bean salad. Chop up fresh veggies, like cucumbers and avocados, to add a bright freshness to curry, cumin, and ginger-seasoned canned chickpeas. 

Kidney beans are much larger and more oval-shaped compared to other types of beans on this list. They offer a sharp visual contrast to vegetables like corn, cilantro, and red onions, which makes them a stunning (and tasty) addition to any dense bean salad. 

Some have described their taste to be slightly sweet, but there are many ways to build on kidney beans' simple flavor to make it more savory and complex. Canned kidney beans really yearn for an acidic element in a salad, which is why pairing it with a spritz of lemon or lime juice or vinegar would make sense. Another smart move would be to pair this bean with something that has texture. Since the beans are so long, they have a soft, pasty interior that can become a bit monotonous if they make up the bulk of a salad. You may want to try adding items to your kidney bean salad to help contrast that mushiness — like chopped cucumbers, red onion, and celery. 

White beans have to be one of the most underrated types of beans out there. Their flavor is slightly sweet and relatively mild, which makes them a blank canvas for almost any type of other ingredient you want to add to your salad. We like to think of them as being on the same level of flavor as a chickpea, though they have a texture more reminiscent of a black or a kidney bean. 

White beans are great supplemental beans, meaning that you can use them to add bulk to your bean salad along with other additions like kidney beans and chickpeas. Or, you can give the white bean its well-deserved spotlight by pairing it with tons of herbs, like chopped parsley or cilantro and dried herbs de Provence. This will draw attention to the bean's natural buttery flavor and subtle sweetness. Since the texture of these beans is divine, we'd recommend staying away from anything that's sharply flavored, mainly onions or bitter ingredients, as you still want the delicate flavor of the white bean to be front and center. 

If you're considering adding a little meat to your bean salad, though, now may be the best time to do so. Consider draining a can of tuna or chicken and adding it to your salad; the subtle saltiness will perk the rest of your ingredients right up and will be in excellent contrast to an acidic dressing, like one made with red wine vinegar. 

Black beans are one ingredient that we always keep in our pantry — and for good reason. These beans are incredibly versatile and one of the most approachable varieties in the whole bean-iverse. For one, they have a thick outer skin that makes them incredibly satisfying to bite into. The flavor of the actual bean is meaty and hearty, which makes black beans an excellent addition to a salad where you're skipping the meat. 

One of the great dense bean salads out there is none other than cowboy caviar. This delectable dish, which can used as a side, entrée, or a topping for tacos, brims with flavor from the black beans, corn, red pepper, cilantro, tomatoes, and sliced avocado. The black beans are essentially the glue that holds this whole salad together, as they offer a rich, hearty mouthfeel and a canvas for all the acidic, sweet, and vibrant veggies to shine. Moreover, you could also take a simpler route and use black beans as a supplementary addition to a jalapeño-lime three-bean salad, in tandem with garbanzo beans and kidney beans. 

Wait, is edamame actually a bean? If anything, it seems like the least bean-like of any addition on this list. It's also more commonly found in the freezer section nestled inside of its pods rather than tucked inside a metal can. But truthfully, it is a bean — and it might just be the most flavorful addition to your dense bean salad on this list. 

Edamame has a slightly grassy flavor, and when you eat it from the can, you may find that it has a slight sourness and moderately salty flavor. However, you can give the beans a good rinse under water to dial back this briny flavor. Edamame, which comes from soybeans, is often used in Asian cuisines — which is why you should stick to a similar vein when you try to make a bean salad with it at home. Pack on the rice wine vinegar and a little bit of lime juice to give it brightness, all while packing on fresh vegetable additions like corn, carrots, cabbage, and more. Edamame's earthy flavor also makes it a great match for tofu, as well as another soy product: Soy sauce. The soy sauce will add umami depth to your bean salad while the tofu will amp up the protein content a little bit. 

While frozen edamame is a popular freezer staple in grocery stores across the country, the ready-to-eat canned variety is also a great option to purchase and have on hand. Check out your local Asian ethnic market or the international aisle of your grocery store to try and locate it. Your TikTok-famous dense bean salads will never be the same.