For The Best Tasting Bean Salad, Let It Sit Overnight

Bean salad is a hardy side to serve at a barbecue or picnic because it isn't precious. You can make this forgiving dish well in advance and serve it simply with zero pre-game preening required. Unlike a pasta salad that can become dry and need a second round of dressing, a bean salad is hunky-dory from the moment its made to the point of serving. However, this low maintenance star does benefit from one rider: A little extra time to sit overnight so the flavors can meld and the dressing can be soaked up by those thirsty beans.

Tucking your bowl of beans into their refrigerated bed for the night does two key things. Firstly it gives the dressing you've incorporated into your recipe plenty of time to be absorbed by the beans, transforming them into scrumptious little nuggets of intensified flavor. The same goes for add-ins you may have mixed into your salad, such as mozzarella balls, chopped deli meat, or bulgur wheat. Secondly, an overnight soak in a liquidy vinaigrette softens the texture of the beans. While it's true that dried beans will imbibe a surrounding liquid and plump up to almost double their weight when soaked overnight, cooked beans will also continue to macerate in a dressing, sucking up a concentrated vinaigrette and becoming a tad softer. The result? Tender garbanzo, fava, and cannellini beans that have soaked up as much flavor as possible from herbs, seasonings, and fruity oils.

A bean salad can sit happily in the fridge from 3 to 5 days depending on the add-ins you've incorporated into the bean base. For example, this roasted artichoke and white bean salad is good for three days because it doesn't feature cooked meats, dairy, or greens that can turn limp and unpalatable over time. Adding a slick of olive oil and vinegar to the beans to coat their surface also prevents oxidation (the chemical process where exposure to oxygen breaks food down faster and causes it to discolor). This means a well-dressed bean medley, like this jalapeño-lime three-bean salad that has a citrusy zing, can be kept longer in the fridge than other picnic classics that have a mayo-based dressing, such as potato salad. You just need to allow your beans to come to room temperature before serving to enliven all those flavors.

Bean salad is perfect for making in bulk because it keeps so well and can be paired with anything from baked chicken and fish to veggie skewers and barbecued meats. If you've made a particularly large batch and have heaps of leftovers, consider adding a spoonful to burritos, quesadillas, or sandwiches. You could even whizz up a bean salad with more fresh herbs and oil to make a bean dip to enjoy with chips and crackers.