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Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad With Olives taken with iphone 15 pro max --iw 2 --ar 4:5 --v 6.0 --raw

Dense Bean Salad (Protein-Packed Mediterranean Style)

This Dense Bean Salad is a high-protein hearty mix of chickpeas, cannellini beans, crisp vegetables, olives, and feta in a tangy oregano-garlic vinaigrette. Perfect for meal prepped lunches and popular at potlucks!
Prep Time 25 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Calories 325 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Pressure cooker
  • 1 Mixing bowl

Ingredients
  

Main ingredients

  • 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 1 can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 red bell pepper finely diced
  • 1 orange or yellow bell pepper finely diced
  • 2 Persian cucumbers or half a big English cucumber sliced up
  • ½ small red onion heaping half cup chopped
  • cup fresh parsley finely chopped
  • ½ cup kalamata olives or mix them up with pepperoncini for a zing
  • ½ cup feta cheese crumbled good and chunky
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar to drizzle over all that goodness
  • 1 ½ tsp honey or pure maple syrup to sweeten just a little
  • 1 ½ tsp dried oregano for that Mediterranean vibe
  • 3 cloves garlic minced fine so it spreads everywhere
  • ¾ tsp fine salt helps pull all the flavors out
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper for some bite
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil to tie everything together

Instructions
 

Instructions

  • First, open up your pressure cooker and get ready to prep the beans if you wanna soften them a bit more than canned. You can pressure cook rinsed beans for about 5 minutes with a quick release if you like extra softness.
  • Next, drain and rinse those canned chickpeas and cannellini beans real good. This helps lose the canned taste, ya know?
  • Get your bell peppers diced nice and small so they're easy to munch on later. Same goes for cucumbers and red onion. In a big bowl, toss together the chickpeas, cannellini beans, diced peppers, sliced cucumbers, chopped red onion, and parsley.
  • Add the kalamata olives or that mix with pepperoncini for a slight kick. Then crumble the feta cheese right on top. You gotta get all those flavors mingling early. Drizzle the red wine vinegar over everything and give it a gentle toss so the tang spreads through without mushing anything.
  • Sprinkle in the dried oregano, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Finally, pour the olive oil in a slow steady stream while tossing to coat all those ingredients with rich flavor. Let the salad rest for at least 10 minutes so the flavors blend together. If you're impatient like me, you could sneak a taste right away but the wait makes a heck of a difference.

Notes

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.