Red Bean Salad - Quick, Healthy Salad

After feasting on Malai Kofta, I thought it's best to compensate by eating something healthy, for a change ;) Searched my freezer and found different beans such as red beans, black eyed beans, white hyacinth bean(mochai in Tamil) and I picked the red ones. Here's a simple salad that I tried with easy-to-get ingredients.

What You Need -

Red Beans - 1 cup
Tomato - 1/2 big or 1 small
Onion- 1/2 medium
Red, Yellow and Orange Capsicum - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Coriander leaves/Cilantro - a few

Pav Bhaji/Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste


For the Vinaigrette -

Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Juice from half-lemon
Honey - 1 tsp
Jeera powder -  3/4 tsp
Thousand Island dressing - 1 tbsp (optional)
Olive Oil - 1.5 tsp


How To -

• Soak Red Beans overnight for 12 hours or more. 
• I had a bad experience with a particular variety of red beans not being cooked well. I learnt that the Chinese Red beans needs to be soaked for 24-36 hours :(  
• I changed water every 12 hours and at the end of 36 hours, there was a significant difference in the size and softness of the red beans.

Just beginning to soak

After 36 hours

• Pressure-cook the soaked beans with salt.
• Chop tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and cilantro finely.

           => Dunk onions in hot water for 5 minutes to get rid of the raw smell.

• Sprinkle Pav bhaji masala or Chaat masala over them.

• Let's prepare the vinaigrette now by adding all the ingredients in that order, in a bowl. Beat them well together. Continue to whisk until it is smooth and tastes good. Add salt if required.

Before whisking

• Mix with the red beans and veggies and enjoy your healthy meal :) The Red beans make it quite filling indeed. Feel free to increase their quantity, if you like to.

Do drop a line if you tried and liked this :)