10 minutes, no cooking, one super flavor-packed white bean salad loaded with crowd-pleasing Mediterranean flavours. Just chop a few veggies, toss them through white beans, and pile everything on top of a quick, ultra-creamy basil tahini sauce. Perfect for meal prep, barbecues, or a light weeknight meal.
Beans are a fabulous blank canvas type of ingredient. You can really pair them with whatever you like, and they carry strong, bold flavors well.
Here, I’ve gone for a twist on my absolute go-to orzo pesto pasta salad – but with the added nutritional benefits of beans. Packed with protein, they’re filling, healthy, and make a wonderful base. Play around with the veggies if you like; diced cucumber, red pepper, or red onion would work well too.
This is a perfect make-ahead salad, so it’s great for picnics, barbecues, or meal prep. Serve it as part of a larger spread of salads, or with your favourite grilled meat (it’s great with harissa honey grilled chicken) or salmon (try it with maple-glazed salmon).
My favorite way to enjoy it is with a plate of crispy baked pita chips on the side. You can use the salad as a kind of dip, piling it onto the chips to eat. It’s delicious, fun, and adds a lovely crunchy texture.
Why You’ll Love This Mediterranean White Bean Salad
- Super quick and easy – it takes just 10 minutes to make and looks so impressive.
- High in protein and fiber, white beans are a nutritional powerhouse and make a filling, healthy base for a salad.
- No cooking is required, so it’s wonderful for hot weather.
- Perfect for meal prep – the salad keeps for at least 5 days in the fridge.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- White beans. I’m using butter beans, but you could use cannellini beans, chickpeas (garbanzos), or even Kidney beans. Jarred beans tend to be what I go for – they’re much more flavorful and the texture is creamier and softer than tinned beans – but if tinned is all you can find, that will work too. If you are using tinned beans, you may need to add a little more salt to your salad, so just taste and season as you go.
- Tahini. Not all tahini is created equal, and the quality of your tahini does make a difference. If you’ve tried tahini and thought it was claggy and bitter, you’ve likely tried a low-quality brand. Stay away from supermarket own brands and go for one produced in Israel, Lebanon, or Palestine. Good tahini should be light and runny (a little oil separation in the jar is normal – just give it a mix with a knife) and not bitter. I like using Belazu, Al Nakhil, or Al Yaman.
- Pesto. Use a high-quality, ideally fresh, store-bought pesto or try making your own fresh basil pesto (it’s super easy!)
- Pine nuts. These lovely nuts pair well with the pesto, but they can be expensive. You could swap them for almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin (pepita seeds).
How to Make the Mediterranean White Bean Salad
It’s as easy as blitzing the pesto and tahini into a smooth, creamy sauce in a small food processor, blender, or chopper (you could also mix it by hand – use a fork to mix it until creamy).
Then, chop your tomatoes and scallions, and add them to a bowl with the white beans, basil, a little pesto, lemon zest, lemon juice, and a little salt, and toss to combine.
Smooth out the basil tahini onto a serving plate, then pile the bean salad on top, scatter over the feta, more basil, and lemon zest. And that’s it!
Mediterranean White Bean Salad FAQs
You can really use any white beans in this recipe! I’m using butter beans (lima beans), but you could use cannellini beans or garbanzos (chickpeas). You could even use Kidney beans. I love to use jarred beans (Bold Bean Co is my favourite in the UK) because I find they have the best creamy texture, but you can also use tinned beans.
Yes! Once made, the salad keeps really well in the fridge (up to 5 days). You can also make the separate elements (the basil tahini and the salad itself) ahead of time, and then just assemble when you’re ready to serve. If you do that, leave the fresh basil out until the last minute so it doesn’t wilt in the fridge.
This is a wonderful base recipe that you can make your own. Add more vegetables – red pepper, cucumber, red onion or celery would be great – or you could add another protein source like grilled miso chicken or tofu. Play with the cheese too – pan-fried halloumi or grated parmesan would be lovely in place of the feta.
Like this recipe? Here are more salad ideas you might enjoy
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10 Minute Mediterranean White Bean Salad
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
10 minutes, no cooking, one super flavor-packed white bean salad loaded with crowd-pleasing Mediterranean flavors. Just chop a few veggies, toss them through white beans, and pile everything on top of a quick, ultra-creamy basil tahini sauce. Perfect for meal prep, barbecues, or a light weeknight meal.
Ingredients
For the basil tahini sauce –ย
- 1/4 cup basil pesto
- 1/2 cup tahini
For the salad –ย
- 1 jar of white beans (drained weight 500g/17oz – or use 2 x 400g/14oz tins)
- 250g/8oz cherry tomatoes
- 3 scallions (spring onions)
- 2 tablespoons basil pesto
- A handful of fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (or use almonds, cashews, pistachios or sunflower seeds)
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- 100g/3.5oz feta
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make the basil tahini sauce. Place 1/4 cup of pesto and 1/2 cup of tahini in a small food processor, blender or food chopper and blitz into a thick paste. Add 2 tablespoons of water, then blitz again until smooth and creamy. You can also do this by hand – just use a fork to mix everything together.
- Prepare the salad. Drain your white beans, then rinse them in a colander, shaking them around to get rid of any excess water. Add the drained beans to a large mixing bowl. Chop your cherry tomatoes into quarters, then finely slice your scallions and add them to the bowl, along with 2 tablespoons of pesto, half the pine nuts, half the fresh basil leaves, half the lemon zest, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of salt. Toss well to combine.
- Assemble the salad. Smooth the basil tahini sauce onto the base of a serving plate, then top with the bean salad. Dollop over the feta, then finish by scattering the remaining lemon zest, fresh basil leaves and pine nuts on top.ย
Notes
INGREDIENT NOTES: I’m using butter beans here, but you can use any white bean you like. Cannellini beans or garbanzos (chickpeas) would also be great. You could also use Kidney beans if that’s all you can find. I like to use jarred beans if possible (the flavour and texture is so much nicer), but they tend to be more expensive, so tinned are also fine. If you are using tinned beans, you may need to add a little more salt to the salad (they tend to not be quite as flavourful as the jarred kind). Try to use a fresh lemon, rather than bottled juice if you can.ย
SUBSTITUTIONS:ย You can really play around here – add more veggies if you like – something crunchy like diced cucumber, red pepper or red onion would be great. Swap the feta for grated parmesan or pan-fried halloumi (or leave it out for a vegan version).ย
STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS:ย The salad will keep really well – at least 5 days – stored in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also prepare the elements in advance and then assemble the salad when you’re ready to serve. If you do that, add the fresh basil at the last minute, so it doesn’t wilt and so soggy in the fridge.ย
- Prep Time: 10
- Category: salads
- Method: no cook
- Cuisine: mediterranean
I love your recipes but the print feature is terrible! Thereโs always an ad that blocks part of the instructions???
Oh noooo, thank you for letting me know – I’ll get my team to take a look ASAP! But very pleased you love the recipes xx