Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad (Viral TikTok Recipe)

Rating

4.9 stars ( reviews)

Keywords

dense bean salad

Ingredients

• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed and dried
• 1 can navy beans, drained, rinsed and dried
• 1 small red onion, diced (about 3/4 cup when diced)
• 2 small bell peppers, diced (red, orange or yellow)
• 1/2 English cucumber, diced
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
• 6 ounces vegan feta cheese, crumpled (I like Violife brand and use about 3/4 of the block)
• Fresh parsley, stems removed, finely diced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 3 large cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Categories

• Salad

Reviews

• Angela on 2024-12-26 (5 stars):
  This bean salad is one of the best. I didn’t change a thing. My mom and husband loved it. Will def make again. Thanks for sharing this recipe Elaine.
• Danielle G. on 2025-01-05 (5 stars):
  I meal prepped this for a weeks worth of lunches! I let my coworkers try it, and ALL of them went home and made it themselves! It was like gold! This dense bean salad is delicious, nutritious, and full of all of my favorite things. I personally find chopping meditative, so I loved the amount of chopping needed for this recipe. And the maple syrup is a surprisingly tasty touch. Love love love!!
• Alayna on 2026-01-21 (5 stars):
  This is really good. Took me a while to get it all together but it's delicious. I did make it with dark red kidney beans instead of chick peas, but that's just because I didn't have chick peas on hand. Really good!
• Isela on 2025-01-14 (5 stars):
  I saved the recipe in my notes to make later. I made this last night so it marinated all night and day. I had it served over brown rice with ground beef & veggies. IT WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD I CANT EVEN EXPLAIN THE CRUNCH THE FRESHNESS THE SLIGHT SALTY KICK OMG! I don’t like to eat garbanzo beans just like that. I had a couple of garbanzo beans cans and most of the ingredients. I just had to buy the vegan feta. Listen yall MAKE THIS! So so good. Perfect meal prep. Refreshing, SO HEALTHY, and fulfilling. I will be making again and again. I’m going to be eating either steak and more ground beef. I promised myself to eat more balanced diet and I’m sticking to it. Thank you!!!
• Marlene LaRhette on 2025-02-25 (5 stars):
  On it! This recipe is a keeper, I haven’t made it yet, but I love that combination. Even better is the mason jar trick to keep fresh, I use them for berries too, they last so long. Thanks for the idea, I have everything in the house now 😉
• Ruby Pap on 2025-07-15 (4 stars):
  I substituted regular goat cheese for this and it came out well, though no chunks of cheese. We do t really have access to many vegan cheese options here in Hawaii unless you want to pay a lot. What would be a good pairing with this salad main course wise?
• Ria on 2025-07-26 (5 stars):
  I just made this salad. It was excellent - even before I added the feta. I used garlic stuffed olives instead of kalamata because I feel like Kalamata olives dominate the flavor too much. I also added some hearts of palm I had in the fridge. That worked really well with this salad.
• C MILLER on 2025-08-02 (5 stars):
  Got rave reviews from the potluck! Will make again. Doubled recipe. Made a few substitutions = recipe is versatile, adaptable to your pantry. Minced garlic from jar instead of a garlic press. Spicy Brown mustard instead of Dijon. Dried parsley instead of fresh. Regular feta (non-vegan). Forgot the cucumber. Since I doubled it, I used 2 garbanzo/1 black bean/1 cannellini bean. Recipe as given is probably even better than what I made. But at 10 pm I was just trying to get it made with what I had. I think the cucumber would have been great in it. Tasted it before I added the feta. The feta really adds to the recipe. Thanks for sharing.
• Julie on 2026-01-07 (5 stars):
  Seriously so delicious. I've had random canned beans in my cupboard for a while because I didn't like the way they tasted in other recipes but I decided to try it in this one and wow! This is seriously life changing, it taste so good.
• Cara on 2026-02-04 (5 stars):
  I just made it for teacher conferences. Turned out lovely.
• Maddy on 2026-03-06 (5 stars):
  Can this be frozen? recipe made alot... very tasty
• Penny on 2026-04-26 (5 stars):
  Great recipe. I added some jicama and artichoke hearts cause I had them and changed the cheese to queso fresco because I don’t like feta. Nice way to turn over some unused canned goods for a healthy meal
• Annie on 2026-05-26 (5 stars):
  Can you share how you put the nutrition info together? I ran it through a recipe analyzer and got totally different numbers. Also do you know approximately how much a serving is? It says 4 servings but those seem like giant servings. Thanks so much! I really like the salad and just want to make sure I'm tracking nutrients properly.
• CW on 2026-05-31 (5 stars):
  Made exactly as written. Huge hit with everyone in the household! Making it again soon. Thank you+
• Eija Ananda on 2026-06-10 (5 stars):
  This is so good, it's almost addictive!
• KRH on 2026-06-11 (5 stars):
  😅 Trigger warning *** To those of you with addictive personalities. This is delicious! perfect for summertime cool down. Also, your bring along to the BBQ or potluck.
• Anne on 2026-06-20 (5 stars):
  Super delicious, and really easy to modify to suit preferences. I added fresh-cut corn to mine, and did all navy beans. I'll be messing with it further, but the base recipe is fantastic as-is.
• Emily DeHoff on 2026-06-23 (5 stars):
  LOVED this recipe! Only did half the olive oil and it was plenty. Definitely adding this into our regular rotation of meals!