Tuscan White Bean Salad
Creamy cannellini, sharp onion, and rosemary oil — rustic, cheap, and quietly excellent.
Ingredients
- 1 tin Cannellini beans
- ¼ Red onion
- 1 clove Garlic
- ½ Lemon
- 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Rosemary (optional)
- ½ tsp Black pepper (optional)
Method
- Chop the rosemary and thinly slice the garlic.
- Warm the olive oil very gently with the rosemary and garlic in a small pan over low heat until fragrant — do not let it fry or brown.
- Drain and rinse the beans in a colander.
- Sliver the red onion as thin as you can.
- Toss the beans and onion with the warm rosemary oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, the salt, and plenty of black pepper.
- Let the salad rest 5 minutes so the beans drink up the dressing.
- Spoon the salad into bowls and serve at room temperature.
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About Tuscan White Bean Salad
Tuscan white bean salad draws on the region's deep love of beans, the reason Tuscans are nicknamed mangiafagioli, or bean-eaters. This is cucina povera at its most appealing: a handful of cheap pantry ingredients treated with care to make something quietly excellent. Creamy cannellini form the base, slivered red onion adds sharp bite, and the whole thing is dressed in an olive oil gently warmed with rosemary and garlic. Vegan, cheap, and fast, it's rustic food that rewards good beans and good oil far more than any complicated technique.
The one bit of technique that matters is infusing the oil low and slow so the rosemary and garlic perfume it without frying or browning, giving the dressing a mellow, herbal depth you can't get by just tossing raw garlic through. Letting the salad rest a few minutes lets the beans drink up that fragrant oil and lemon, so they taste seasoned all the way through rather than just coated. It eats best at room temperature, when the beans turn soft and almost buttery against the sharp onion and plenty of black pepper. Serve it as an antipasto, a light lunch with bread, or a side to grilled meat or fish.
Tuscan White Bean Salad: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Tuscan White Bean Salad?
A serving has about 183 calories — 6.1g protein, 16.9g carbs, 10.7g fat, 4.3g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is Tuscan White Bean Salad gluten-free?
Based on its ingredients, Tuscan White Bean Salad has no gluten-containing components, so it's naturally gluten-free — as always, check that any packaged ingredients you use are certified gluten-free to be safe.
Do I need every ingredient to make Tuscan White Bean Salad?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out rosemary, black pepper — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Tuscan White Bean Salad make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.