When planning your rainbow-colored summer meals don’t forget to include protein-rich, high-fiber beans. This beautiful salad features Italian kidney beans, cannellini, because their mild flavor readily absorbs the characteristics of vine-ripened vegetables and starchy texture becomes “saucy” as they marinate. Make the beans with dressing an hour or two before serving to really soak up flavor. The combination of citrus zest with two vinegars intensifies the vinaigrette but you can switch to whichever vinegar is in your pantry except balsamic varieties. If you want to “refresh” the flavor after a day or two just add new citrus zest. This salad is best served at room temperature. It’s easy, satisfying, economical, so healthy with … red, orange, yellow, green blue-purple! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons Red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Grated lemon or lime zest
½ teaspoon Crushed garlic
2 tablespoons fresh basil, shredded
Salt, pepper to taste
2 tablespoons red onion, chopped
1 cup white kidney beans (cannelini), canned
1 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 cup fresh tomatoes, chopped

Preparation
Combine olive oil, vinegars, citrus zest, garlic, basil and salt and pepper. Gently toss with beans that have been drained and rinsed. Marinate for 30 minutes or more. Toss bean mixture with bell pepper and tomatoes. Store in the refrigerator but serve at room temperature if possible.

Number of Cups: 3
Calories/Cup: 112
Vegetable Servings: 4

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Source: The Healthy Table

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under Recipe Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.