A Bean Salad Is The Perfect Make-Ahead Dish For Your Next BBQ

A barbecue is a classic summertime outdoor get-together, but it can be fairly labor-intensive for the ones tasked with doing all of the cooking. For one thing, cooking the entree — whether it be steaks, burgers, or even grilled tofu – is the main event, so this really can't be done in advance. Some overachievers also use the grill for sides such as cornbread and even desserts like grilled banana boats, but having some make-ahead sides on standby will save work on the day itself. One dish that can be prepared in advance without much effort is a bean salad.

Bean salads (unlike baked beans) can be served cold, so there's no need to reheat them. There's no need to preheat them, either, since most are actually not cooked at all — at least, not if you're starting with canned beans instead of boiling the dried kind. Bean salad should last for up to five days in the refrigerator, but in order to make sure that none of the components get soggy, you may want to hold off on adding any liquid dressing until the day of the barbecue.

Bean salad is also easy to transport, especially if kept in an airtight container with a snap-on lid to prevent leaks or spills. A serving bowl with foil or plastic wrap on top is okay in a pinch, but a sealable plastic bag isn't recommended, since these tend to trap moisture. They don't provide much protection, either, so there's a chance the beans might get squashed.

If you're afraid bean salad might not make for an impressive enough dish for your barbecue, this needn't be the case, since it can be as simple or as complicated as you wish. Our easy three-bean salad is made with canned kidney beans, chickpeas, and frozen green beans dressed with oil and vinegar, but if you're feeling more ambitious, you can make something fancier like Geoffrey Zakarian's bean salad. Zakarian mixes cannellini beans with dried apricots, olives, arugula, and fresh herbs, while we've got a cannellini bean salad of our own that's flavored with pesto.

Other bean salad recipes of ours include a Middle Eastern-inspired balela made with black beans and chickpeas plus a kidney bean salad dressed with mayonnaise and honey (don't leave this one sitting outside for too long). If you'd like to freestyle your bean salad, start with the best type of beans, these being sturdy ones such as pinto as well as the aforementioned kidney, chickpeas, cannellini, and black beans. Use one type or a mixture, whatever appeals to you, then add a citrus- or vinegar-based dressing, a sprinkling of seasoning, and mix-ins like chopped peppers and onions or cheese crumbles.