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Bean Salad With Radicchio, Radish, Pickled Onions, and Marcona Almonds Recipe

Daniel Gritzer
Published: Last Updated:
Bean Salad With Radicchio, Radish, Pickled Onions, and Marcona Almonds Recipe

Great bean salads combine a variety of textures and flavors. [Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I love bean salads for their ease of preparation and completeness as a one-bowl meal. The question, though, is how to prevent them from tasting like a boring bowlful of beans. The answer is simple: Go for maximum contrast, both in texture and in flavor. Here, I add layers of crispness and crunch with Marcona almonds, diced radish, chopped radicchio, and plenty of fresh parsley, scallion, and quick-pickled onion.

Why It Works

  • Using a variety of ingredients adds a spectrum of textures and flavors to each bite.
  • Quick-pickling the onions tames their pungent flavor while adding a tart pop to the salad.

Read more: For the Best Bean Salad, Add Lots of Contrasting Texture and Flavor

  • Yield:Serves 4 as a main course or 6 to 8 as a side
  • Active time: 25 minutes
  • Total time:25 minutes
  • Rated: 5

Ingredients

  • 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
  • Red wine vinegar, for pickling
  • 1/2 cup Marcona almonds
  • 4 cups cooked drained beans (fresh or canned; see note), such as turtle, navy, and/or black-eyed peas
  • 3 radishes, finely diced
  • 2 scallions, white and light green parts only, chopped
  • 1 (6-ounce) head radicchio, quartered, cored, and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (from 1 bunch)
  • Simple Vinaigrette, for dressing
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. 1.

    In a small bowl, add onion and pour enough vinegar over it to just cover. Let stand 15 minutes.

  2. 2.

    Place almonds in a zipper-lock plastic bag, push out air, and seal. Using a skillet, smash almonds until roughly crushed.

  3. 3.

    Drain onions. In a large bowl, combine marinated onions, smashed almonds, beans, radishes, scallions, radicchio, and parsley. Drizzle with vinaigrette, tossing, until ingredients are lightly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. Salad can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

This Recipe Appears In
For the Best Bean Salad, Add Lots of Contrasting Texture and Flavor

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Daniel Gritzer Culinary Director

Daniel cooked for years in some of New York's top American, Italian and French restaurants - starting at the age of 13, when he began staging at the legendary restaurant Chanterelle. He spent nearly a year working on organic farms in Europe, where he harvested almonds and Padron peppers in Spain, shepherded a flock of more than 200 sheep in Italy, and made charcuterie in France. When not working on, thinking about, cooking and eating food, he blows off steam (and calories) as an instructor of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art.

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