Dense bean salad

The world might be in a state of chaos, but with a good dense bean salad in your fridge, you’ve got your corner of it handled.

You are what you eat, the truism goes, but these days it might be more accurate to say we are what we watch other people eating. Media related to cooking and eating has been popular since media began, but, thanks to the rise of influencer culture, it’s more intimate and more reflective of our individual and sociocultural desires than ever before.

In 2021, influencer Emily Mariko’s salmon rice bowl reflected the aspirational simplicity of clean girl culture as Joe Biden’s election brought a fragile sense of stability. In 2023, Grace Elkus’ feta fried egg nurtured our need for extra indulgent yet simple comfort food as conflict began in both Israel and Ukraine. And these days? It’s all about the dense bean salad.

Although bean salads have been around since time immemorial, the dense bean salad was popularized by TikToker Violet Witchel. Imitators are everywhere, but the basic formula persists: beans plus whatever sturdy ingredients you want to eat for lunch over the course of the week, marinated in a just-gets-better-with-time vinaigrette.

Witchel’s first dense bean salad was a Mediterranean-inspired mix of beans and vegetables tossed in creamy dressing, a concoction that earned her over 409,000 likes and more than 1,100 comments from viewers.

What is it about a dense bean salad that resonates so deeply with today’s eater? There’s the fact that making a good dense bean salad can help you feel more in control, an emotion that’s all too rare these days. The world might be in a state of chaos, but with a good dense bean salad in your fridge, you’ve got your corner of it handled. You might not know what’s going to happen next, but at least you know where your next meal is coming from.

Beans are also famously cheap, making the dense bean salad a welcome culinary tool in these economically uncertain times. With the news beating a constant drumbeat about a looming recession, and Trump’s mercurial approach to tariffs, many of us are feeling stressed about our financial futures. Packed with protein, fiber, and nutrients, beans are a cheap, healthy way to get those calories in without spending more than you want to.

It might not be a chicken in every pot, but a Tupperware full of beans in every fridge helps summon a sense of abundance. And bringing lunch from home, as more people are doing, saves on expensive restaurant meals. Dense bean salad can be prepped once and eaten all week, the perfect reliable go-to lunch for days when you don’t want to spend twenty bucks—or more—on a soggy sandwich.

Dense bean salads have been a staple for years in our household. Back before I moved in with him, my husband used to prepare himself something he called “proletariat stew,” a suspicious concoction of canned beans, canned tomatoes, and whatever random vegetables or spices he happened to come across as he was tossing everything into the pot. Sometimes there would be a little ground turkey if he wanted a treat.

When I moved in, I would carve out some time each Sunday to make fancier versions of my own devising. I couldn’t have the man I adored subsisting on beige slop, so I would make white beans with pearl couscous, lentil, and broccoli salads with apples and cheddar, or chickpea, cauliflower, and cashew larb, with little lettuce wraps to match.

With a 2-year-old child and a baby on the way, these days I’m doing less cooking, but I still make time for a dense bean salad whenever I can swing it. It’s the perfect way to use up the random vegetable scraps and jars of condiments lingering in the fridge, and it’s quick and cheap and easy. This recipe brings summery vibes with preserved lemons, chickpeas, or white beans and plenty of fresh herbs—costing pennies per serving and delivering a big dose of delight. Light on the wallet and heavy on joy, it’s the perfect recipe for taking a break from doom scrolling and soaking up a little sun. The magic of the dense bean salad strikes again.

A Simple Bean Salad for Complicated Times

Infinitely flexible and simple, this summer dense bean salad comes together in about five minutes, and uses whatever ingredients you have on hand. Feel free to fancy it up with additional cooked veggies or another source of protein if desired.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas or white beans

1 cup cooked pasta, orzo, faro, spelt, or pearl couscous

1 clove garlic

½ preserved lemon, flesh and rind
2 tbsp olive oil

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

2 cups fresh herbs, like parsley, basil, chives, or dill

½ cup mixed pickled veggies of choice, such as pickled peppers, capers, or olives

Method:

Step 1:

Mix together the chickpeas and cooked grains of choice, slightly mashing the chickpeas.

Step 2:

Make the dressing with one grated or finely chopped clove of garlic, finely chopped preserved lemon, and olive oil. Mash together until slightly creamy, adding salt to taste if necessary.

Step 3:

Finely chop your soft herbs, coarsely chop your pickles, and combine everything with the grains, chickpeas, feta, and dressing. Eat immediately or leave to marinate in the fridge until you’re ready to enjoy!

Emily Beyda’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Built, Refinery29, Smartmouth, Fodors, the Thrillist, the Austin Chronicle, and more. Her novel, “The Body Double,” was published in 2021.

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