These easy, tasty vegan bean salad recipes are a perfect way to add more legumes to your daily repertoire. You’ll find delicious ways to use common varieties including black, red, kidney, cannellini beans, and more — including chickpeas and edamame into quick cool dishes that add protein to the plate.
It’s well known that we should all be using more beans and legumes. Filling, flavorful, versatile, and inexpensive, what’s not to love?
Beans are powerhouse plant foods, rich in protein and fiber, and low in fat. They provide a slew of vitamins (B vitamins in particular) and essential minerals (notably iron). Learn lots more in our guide, Common Bean Varieties and How to Use Them. If you need more convincing, here’s why beans are not only good for you, but for the planet, too.
A Variety of Bean Salads
Super Quick 2 Bean Salad: When your meal needs a protein boost, beans come to the rescue, and this super-easy bean salad can be made in 10 minutes or less. Use whatever two bean combo that may be in your pantry, and vary it every time you make it.
Classic 3 Bean Salad: Simple, sturdy, and naturally plant-based, this American classic is perfect for potlucks and picnics. The three beans often used are green beans, white beans, and some sort of pink or red bean.
Festive 5 Bean Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette: Why settle for the traditional three-bean salad, when you can use five beans? This party-sized 5 bean salad recipe is a good choice when you need a company dish that’s fast, inexpensive, and goes a long way.
Red Bean and Potato Salad with Artichoke Hearts: Satisfying enough to be a main dish, this bean and potato salad is welcome as a side dish in smaller portions or packed into a container as a portable lunch.
Super-Easy Avocado and Bean Salad: This super-easy bean salad recipe is richly flavored with olives and cherry tomatoes. It can be can be made with pinto or red beans and is simply dressed in lime juice. Extra-virgin olive oil, cilantro, and pumpkin seeds are suggested as optional embellishments.
Vegan “Tuna” and White Bean Salad: Proving that anything can be made in a plant-based version, this white bean salad is a classic that’s welcome for lunch or dinner.
Easy Corn and Pinto Bean Salad: Simply embellished with lime vinaigrette, here’s an easy way add color and protein to your plate. Whether you’re looking for a substantial salad to serve for everyday meals or a last-minute dish to throw together for a potluck, this quick recipe can serve as both.
Quinoa and Red Bean Salad with Mini Sweet Peppers is an ideal centerpiece for a meal, served with fruit for lunch and soup for dinner. Extra eye appeal comes from the mini sweet peppers, which you can find in the produce department of well-stocked markets.
Texas Caviar: This recipe, also known as cowboy caviar, is a tasty marinated salad that incorporates other typical ingredients like bell peppers, tomatoes, and corn. It can be used as a salad as well as a chunky, salsa-like dip served with tortilla chips.
Barley Salad with Red Beans and Cucumber: This simple and flavorful barley salad with red beans is embellished with cucumber, herbs, and sunflower seeds, dressed in vinaigrette. Though best known for its role in hearty soups, barley is a fantastic grain to use in sturdy cold dishes like this one.
Black Bean Salads
Orzo Salad with Black Beans and Corn: Made with rice-shaped pasta, this orzo salad is studded with black beans and corn and flavored with salsa. It’s easy to make and even easier to eat.
Southwestern Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Corn: Black beans, corn, and avocado come together in a hearty southwestern quinoa salad that’s good as a main dish or side.
Black Bean and Corn Salad for a Crowd: Here’s a classic bean and corn salad featuring avocado and grape tomatoes, dressed in lime vinaigrette. This main-dish salad is a fantastic potluck dish, and a good choice to make when you’re expecting more company than usual.
Hot and Cool Layered Black Bean Taco Salad: Here’s a fast and fun main dish salad that has it all — leafy greens, high-protein black beans, and for the yum factor, good-quality tortilla chips and vegan cheese.
Black Bean and Mango Salad with Avocado: Black beans and mango make a brilliant combination, both in terms of flavor and the visual appeal. This one includes avocado as well.
Black Bean and Tomato Salad with Croutons and Olives: This appetizing salad adds color and crunch to many kinds of meals and is especially good with grain dishes and vegan quesadillas. You can even make it a main dish salad in the summer, served with fresh corn.
Kale and Quinoa Salad with Black Beans: With black beans, quinoa, and pumpkin seeds as a trio of protein ingredients, larger portions of this kale salad can easily be served as a main dish.
Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Salads
Kale Caesar Salad with Spiced Chickpeas: This vegan Caesar salad is topped with spiced chickpeas instead of the traditional croutons and is enveloped in an easy creamy dressing.
Kale Salad with Chickpeas and Avocado: A simple kale and chickpea salad embellished with avocado, this relies on a lemon-olive oil dressing and a pleasing presentation.
Hot and Cool Buffalo Cauliflower Chickpea Salad: There are enough vegan Buffalo cauliflower wings recipes floating around. But I enjoy this mash-up of flavors so much that I’ve transposed them into a hearty Buffalo cauliflower and chickpea salad.
Carrot Chickpea Salad with Olives & Parsley: This simple carrot chickpea salad is inspired by a traditional Middle Eastern recipe, embellished with lots of parsley and briny olives.
Chickpeas and Green Beans with Balsamic Mushrooms: Here’s an appealing medley of chickpeas and green beans embellished with brown mushrooms sautéed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Vegan Cobb Salad: An American classic, this vegan version of Cobb salad recipe swaps in plant-based proteins for the traditional chicken and bacon, and replaces the customary hard-boiled eggs with chickpeas.
Kale and Chickpea Salad or Sandwich Spread: This is fantastic on fresh bread, or as a filling for pita bread or a wrap with tender lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Or, simply serve on its own or in lettuce cups to add more protein to the plate.
Chickpea Salad & Sandwich Spread: If you’ve been vegan for a while, you probably have your own version of Dianne Wenz’s chickpea salad recipe. But if you’re a newbie or an omnivore, the idea of making a mock tuna salad from chickpeas might be new to you. It’s just as good dolloped onto salad greens as it is as a spread on fresh bread.
Edamame Salads
Let’s not forget, edamame are fresh green soybeans — so we count them as beans, too! Find out lots more in our Guide to Edamame.
Sesame-Ginger Tofu & Edamame Salad: Here’s an easy tofu and edamame salad recipe that’s perfect to serve with your favorite Asian-inspired rice or noodle dishes.
Succotash-Style Corn and Edamame Salad: In this simple variation on traditional succotash, edamame stand in for the customary lima beans. It’s especially delicious made with fresh summer corn.
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