Multiple Bean Salad Recipe by Food Storage Moms

I haven’t had 3 bean salad since I was a kid.  I liked the tangy flavor.  But I really dislike wax beans, which is pretty much always one of the three beans in commercially canned Three Bean Salads.  I was looking into recipes for home canning 3 bean salad, when I came across this recipe at Food Storage Moms.  This is not a canning recipe, and I am not a canning expert to know if its even safe to can, but I thought maybe this is a smart thing to do anyway.  I don’t know if my family will eat canned bean salad at all.  They like beans, but the kids are a but sensitive to vinegary dressings.  What if I canned a bunch of jars and if Mom and I were the only ones that would eat it?  This recipe seemed like a smart way to make a small batch to test the waters, and hooray, no wax beans in sight!

I’ve got all the ingredients on hand, including some interesting celery from my latest CSA that is weird and thin and would be best used in a fine dice so I am definitely making a batch, as soon as I hit post. =)

This recipe is copied directly from Food Storage Moms (I am not sure why salt is listed twice in the brining liquid. I did post a comment and ask, but the original was posted over a year ago, so I don’t know that I will get a response. She did respond and just removed it.)

multiple-bean-salad-recipe1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can green beans, drained
1 can red beans, drained
1 can navy beans, drained
1 small onion, chopped/diced
1 small green bell pepper, chopped/diced
½ cup chopped/diced celery

Grab a quart mason jar and fill and shake the following ingredients

¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup oil
½ cup vinegar (I prefer white vinegar)
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon paprika

Mix all ingredients in the jar that will fit. Keep in the refrigerator and serve well chilled. I always have excess beans that I add to the vinegar solution the next day to get one more meal out of it.

Im So Giddy!

I was checking out Cragislist, sorta looking for food grade barrels and / or gamma lids, more to get an idea of availability and cost versus buying them new when I was browsing around and came across a listing for canning jars.  There’s lots of overpriced vintage jar ads, but this was different – clearly from a family who are no longer canning, not some re-saler looking to make a profit.  50-some 1/2 pint, 50-some pint, 40-some quart and a handful of 1/2 gallon jars, for a total of 152 jars, all stored in 4 Rubbermaid roughneck totes for only 25$ !!  The totes alone, if I purchased them new would cost more than that!

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I emailed them right away, and they got back to me today.  They wanted to make sure the jars were going to someone that actually wanted to can with them, and I assured them that this is a skill I really do want to become proficient in.  I rushed right over to get them. They even threw in a bag of rings and unopened boxes of lids! A 12 pack of quart jars, new, I haven’t seen for less than 30$ and I’ve see them for 50$ or more on amazon.  Half-Pints and Pints are a bit better at 10-15$ a dozen (but about half my half pints are the decorative cut glass looking ones).

The wife, who had been the canner, looking a little frail and very sweet, said she went through and recycled any jars that had chips or seemed unsafe.  I still will check them of course, but even if a few were unusable for actual canning, I can find a use for it.  (I love me some mason jar crafts)

Unless Santa brings me a Pressure Canner, I probably won’t get any use from my jars until next year, but I am absolutely giddy with excitement to have these supplies that I can fill with food to build the pantry.