Easy-to-make and no cooking required, this delicious Italian White Bean Salad is a summer side go-to! It travels well too making it the perfect salad to bring along to barbecues, parties, and warm-weather gatherings.
When the weather warms up, I turn to recipes with simple ingredients that require very little prep and celebrate the season.
Italian white bean salad combines fresh summer ingredients, like cherry tomatoes, basil, and parsley, with budget-friendly pantry staples like beans, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.
This simple bean salad is the perfect complement to grilled meats, such as grilled chicken thighs, grilled pork chops, and steak pinwheels.
And since it tastes even better the next day, it’s the perfect make-ahead side.
Recipe Ingredients
All ingredients for this recipe are shown in the pic below and special notes are made in this bulleted list to assist you.
- Beans. I used a combination of 3 beans: butter beans, cannellini beans, and small white beans because I love the contrast of the 3 different sizes. Feel free to use all of the same bean, or just two of these beans if you can’t find all 3. Be sure to drain and rinse the beans for this recipe.
- Produce. The combo of fresh basil and parsley with cherry tomatoes gives this white bean salad its Italian flavor.
- Vinaigrette. I’m using a combination of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, and Dijon mustard for a simple but classic vinaigrette.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
More simple sides
Here are a few of my favorite sides that are perfect for warm weather!
- Mixed bean salad – with green beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, cucumber, and celery.
- Tomato and mozzarella salad – with red onion and the simplest vinaigrette.
- Potato and green bean salad – with tomatoes and a fresh herb and Dijon vinaigrette.
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Italian White Bean Salad
Ingredients
For the bean salad
- 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15-ounce can butter beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15-ounce can small white beans drained and rinsed, or another can of either above
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 12 ounces cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
For the vinaigrette
- 1 clove garlic paste
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Mix the beans and red onion together in a large bowl.
- Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients. Taste test and adjust salt and pepper if required.
- Pour the vinaigrette onto the salad and mix well. Add the tomatoes and herbs and gently mix one more time. The salad is best served chilled but can be eaten right away. Enjoy!
Notes
- Any type of white bean can be used.
- It’s best to refrigerate overnight so that the flavors meld together and become more intense.
- Leftovers can be saved in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I make a lot of bean salads already but never with this quantity of beans ( three cans) I used the butter, cannelloni, and small white beans. We loved the salad but we felt like it needed a crunch so I added cucumber and thinly sliced radish. We loved the dressing but only used half when we mixed it up and we felt like that was enough. Oh, and we only used basil, lots of basil, the wife’s not a big fan of parsley. Lol
Hi Patrick, thanks for the comment and so happy you enjoyed. Radish and cucumber sound like great additions!
I don’t usually comment online when I try new recipes, but this was just delicious! I used navy, cannelloni, and butter beans and got the best cherry tomatoes I could find. It tasted so good! I assembled everything without the dressing the night before and made sure to serve it really cold. I’m going to serve leftovers on greens with grilled steak.
We’re so happy you enjoyed, Julie! Thanks for the comment!
Great for a 90 deg. day .
So happy you enjoyed, Gary!
I made a version of this. Sat in Fridge overnight and olive oil hardened. Best way to eat it? tons of it and it’s all mushed together now.
My Mom used to make something very similar – except I do not remember her adding mustard to the dressing, and she only used cannelini beans. But I am going to try it your way. Should be delicious. (She never worked from printed recipes. Anything I attempt is from faulty memory.)
Although I’m married 56 years I still learn something new from this fabulous chef
Would like to serve this for Pinot Grigio wine tasting. Adding shrimp to make it more entree like. Thoughts?
Hi Samantha, adding shrimp would be a great addition to this!
Wow, I made the Italian White Bean Salad, it’s so flavorful. I love beans anyway so it was a natural. I added Baby Limas and Black Beans, used a whole huge red onion and doubled the amount of dressing – hey, I could live on this. It’s hot in SE Florida already and this cold, wonderful salad hits the spot. Thanks.
We’re so happy you enjoyed the bean salad, Maurice, and thanks for sharing your variations!
You’re a culinary genius. 🙂 Thanks for your artistry!
I can’t wait to make these!!
Just made this and it’s excellent! I do not like butter beans, so I substituted canned black eyed peas.
I love all your recipes. Tonight’s dinner is Grandma Pizza. Another top notch recipe🇮🇹
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Susan! Thanks for the comment!