Protein packed and fiber rich – this Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad is a simple and delicious way to fill up your plate with nutrient dense ingredients! Satisfy your tastebuds and satiate your appetite in equal measure with this easy recipe.
If you haven’t jumped on the ‘dense bean salad’ tiktok trend yet, let this Mediterranean inspired Dense Bean Salad recipe be the one to convince you!
What’s a Dense Bean Salad?
A dense bean salad is basically just a type of high protein salad with a mixed bean base and fresh vegetables coated in a punchy dressing.
The goal is to make it healthy, filling and suitable for meal prep so you can make a big salad and enjoy throughout the whole week as a ready made lunch or dinner.
The concept isn’t exactly new, but the name was coined by a Tiktok creator Violet Witchel in a series of recipe videos sharing different types of dense bean salad recipes.
⭐Recipe Highlights⭐
What’s great about this Mediterranean bean salad:
- Nutrient Dense: It’s high protein, fiber packed and full of healthy, slow release carbohydrates.
- Easy to Make: You only need about 30 minutes and simple ingredients to make this salad! While the sweet potatoes roast; chop, prep and mix everything else together and that’s it!
- Ideal for Meal Prep: This type of salad tastes great on the first day, but even better on the second day after all the base flavors get a bit more time to hang out!
Steps + Ingredients
Sweet Potato
- Start by roasting the sweet potatoes. They need about 20-25 minutes to roast in the the oven until tender. Use the roasting time to prep the rest of the salad.
Vinaigrette
- In a small bowl or jar: combine the dressing ingredients. Whisk well until combined or fasten the lid and shake well. Taste and season as you see fit then set aside.
Salad Assembly
- Prep the remaining ingredients as needed:
- drain & rinse the canned beans
- drain & chop the sun-dried tomato
- slice, dice & chop the onion, parsley, feta and turkey
- Add everything to a large bowl including the sweet potato when it’s ready.
- Pour the vinaigrette dressing over the whole bowl and toss well until fully combined.
Substitutions & Additions
- Feta >> Leave it out to make a dairy free salad. Swap out the feta cheese for mozzarella or diced hard cheese like cheddar.
- Pepitas >> Swap out the pepitas for sunflower seeds or replace with chopped nuts like toasted almonds or pine nuts.
- Turkey >> Try other types of deli meat like salami, ham or chicken. You can also use leftover shredded rotisserie chicken or turkey.
- Parsley >> Use a variety of fresh herbs in addition to the fresh parsley. Try it with basil, chives or mint.
- Beans >> Opt to use all cannellini beans or all chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) or a different variety of white bean altogether.
- Make It Dairy Free >> Leave out the feta and replace it with a vegan/dairy free alternative.
- Make it Vegan or Vegetarian Friendly >> Omit both the feta and turkey to make this salad more suitable for plant-based diets. Even without, this salad is still incredibly filling and delicious!
- More Veggies: Add chopped cucumber or bell peppers for additional crunch. Jarred artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers (drained and chopped) are another excellent choice.
More Ways to Enjoy Beans!
A few more delicious salad recipes featuring variety of colorful vegetables and a mix of beans:
- Greek Feta Salad With Chickpeas
- Roasted Sweet Potato & Chickpea Kale Apple Salad With Bacon
- Sun Dried Tomato Cannellini Bean Salad
- Roasted Herb & Lentil Salad
- Spiced Chickpea Kale Salad & Creamy Lemon Dressing
- Piyaz (Turkish White Bean Salad)
- Crispy Rice Salad with Lemony Chickpeas & Cucumber
- Crispy Peanut Rice & Cabbage Crunch Salad
- Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Bean Quinoa Kale Salad
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Recipe
Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad
Yield:
5 servings
Prep Time:
15 minutes
Cook Time:
25 minutes
Total Time:
40 minutes
This colorful and delicious dense bean salad is a simple and satisfying way to pack in protein and fiber!
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/4 -1/2 inch chunks
- 1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 oz | 400g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 10 oz roasted turkey deli slices (300g)
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drain and chopped (120g | 4oz)
- 1/2 cup pepitas (75g)
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped - measure after chopping (25g)
- 2/3 cup diced or crumbled feta (100g | 3.5oz)
Vinaigrette
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (80ml)
- 3 tbsp lemon juice (45ml)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp honey, maple syrup or sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt + more to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
- Roast Potatoes: Add sweet potatoes to the baking sheet. Drizzle and toss potatoes with 2 teaspoons olive oil and a pinch of salt. Place in the middle of the oven and roast for 20-22 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.
- Mix Salad: In a large bowl, combine the remaining salad ingredients. When the sweet potatoes are done, add them to the bowl too.
- Vinaigrette: In a small cup or jar whisk together all of the vinaigrette ingredients until well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Combine: Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and mix together. Make sure to thoroughly mix the salad to ensure everything gets fully coated in the dressing. Taste and season with salt and pepper as you see fit.
- Enjoy: Serve and enjoy ASAP or transfer to an airtight storage container and keep in the fridge about 5 days. If time permits, I recommend you cover and rest the salad about 20-30 minutes to give the ingredients more time to marinate.
Notes
- Sun Dried Tomato Oil: If your sun-dried tomatoes are stored in olive oil, feel free to use that oil to make your vinaigrette.
- Turkey: I used pre-sliced roasted turkey breast - the kind normally used for making sandwiches. Feel free to swap it out with shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover homemade chicken/turkey.
- Nuts/Seeds: Try sunflower seeds instead of or in addition to the pepitas. You can also use pine nuts and/or almonds instead or leave out and nuts/seeds altogether.
- Serving Size: 1 serving size is about 2 cups or 330g.
Nutrition Information
Yield: 5
Serving Size:
2 cups Calories: 548Total Fat: 33gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 88mgSodium: 794mgCarbohydrates: 35gFiber: 7gSugar: 9gProtein: 31gThis website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Jill says
This was very good, and easy to make. Filling, too, for those days at work when you can only grab something quickly. Will definitely make again. I used artichokes, and left out the red onion. The versatility is great!
Sarah Nevins says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back to leave a review!
Rachel says
Delicious! 5 stars. So easy to make and keeps well for the next day.
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks so much, Rachel! I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Peg Kass says
This dish is delicious. I just had artichokes, no sun dried tomatoes, but it still tasted great. It’s a good base recipe that can be so flexible, using whatever you have on hand.
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Peg! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂