Canning Three Bean Salad

Pickled three-bean salad is an easy water bath canning recipe that makes a lovely side dish at a summer BBQ.  Once canned, ready at a moment’s notice, which is perfect for last-minute potlucks and impromptu gatherings.

Pickled three-bean salad is a classic potluck dish, usually served alongside deviled eggs, Boston baked beans, and BBQ chicken.

The trick is, making a pickled salad requires time.  All the ingredients must sit for many hours to fully infuse with flavor, and that just won’t cut it unless you plan days in advance.

Canning pickled 3 bean salad means you’ll always have it ready to go as a quick side dish at a moment’s notice.  You can put it up in the off-season and then have it ready to serve all summer long. 

Just grill up some tasty food, and pop open a jar for a quick meal entirely outdoors (without heating up the kitchen in the summer months).

What I love most about this recipe is that it’s an easy water bath canning recipe, so you won’t have to worry about pressure canning.  

The USDA has tested this recipe for canning safety in a water bath canner, so it is, in fact, a tested recipe that you can follow at home.  While I’m not a big fan of the USDA’s recipe, it’s been modified by Angi Schneider in her book The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables.

Instead of using abrasive white vinegar, she opts for wine vinegar, which makes all the difference.

Reprinted with permission from The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables by Angi Schneider. Page Street Publishing Co. 2020. Photo credit: Dennis Burnett.  It has been edited slightly for format and length to fit the web.

Canning Three Bean Salad

While pickled snap bean recipes are easy to find, tested recipes that use dry beans or shell beans and are processed in a water bath canner are rare to find. When I found one, I had to try it.

It was good, but not quite right for our family, so I made a few tweaks within the approved guidelines and created a new family favorite. This recipe is a two-day process, as the beans need to marinate overnight, but it’s worth the effort.

This bean salad is great as a cold side dish for a sandwich or salad supper. Garnish it with chopped fresh parsley.

Ingredients for Canning Three Bean Salad

To make 11 to 12 half-pint (250-ml) jars, or 5–6 pint (500-ml) jars, you’ll need the following:

• 3 cups (330 g) snap beans, chopped, blanched for 3 minutes, and cooled
• 3 cups (770 g) canned and drained or cooked kidney beans
• 2 cups (480 g) canned and drained or cooked garbanzo beans
• 1 cup (150 g) chopped onion
• 2⁄3 cup (98 g) chopped sweet pepper
• 1 cup (237 ml) red wine vinegar (5% acidity)
• 1 cup (237 ml) bottled lemon juice
• 1 1⁄2 cups (300 g) sugar
• 1⁄2 cup (118 ml) olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 
2 1⁄2 cups (593 ml) water

The original recipe from the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning was smaller, and only made half as much.  This recipe is quite similar to theirs, but doubled in size. 

I’ve removed the celery, which my family doesn’t appreciate.  If you want to add it, you can add in 1 cup of chopped celery, as that was in the original USDA recipe.  

They also used white vinegar, which can be incredibly abrasive.  I’ve switched it to red wine vinegar, which gives a much nicer flavor to the finished three-bean salad.  They’re both standardized to 5% adicity, so that’s an allowed substitution.

The last thing I’ve done is included more lemon juice, which really makes this salad sing.  The original recipe would only use 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice for this quantity of ingredients, so feel free to reduce the lemon juice down to 1/2 cup if you want to use less.  (Do not reduce it below 1/2 cup, as that’s the minimum required in the tested USDA recipe.)

The main thing is that you must keep up the acidity to truly make this a pickled three-bean salad if you want to process it in a water bath canner.  Generally, beans are not acidic enough for water bath canning, but the addition of all that extra vinegar and lemon juice is what makes this recipe work.

Making 3 Bean Salad for Canning

The basic process is pretty simple, and starts with all the vegetables mixed together in a bowl.  The brine is made in a separate stock pot with vinegar, salt, and spices.

Add in the vegetables, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and cool completely.  Allow the mixture to marinade in the refrigerator for 12-14 hours (overnight).

The next day, prepare a water bath canner, bring everything back to a simmer and fill the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.

Process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude.

Altitude adjustments for canning 3 bean salad are as follows:

• For 0 to 1,000 Feet in elevation, process for 15 minutes
• For 1,001 to 6,000 Feet in elevation, process for 20 minutes
• Above 6,000 feet, process for 25 minutes

This recipe is only tested for canning in pint and half-pint jars.

Yield: Makes 5 or 6 pint jars (or 11-12 half pint jars)

Canning Three Bean Salad

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Maceration Time: 12 hours

Canning Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

This bean salad is great as a cold side dish for a sandwich or salad supper, and it's easy to put up on your pantry shelf after a quick procsessing in the water bath canner.

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Ingredients

• 3 cups (330 g) snap beans, chopped, blanched for 3 minutes and cooled
• 3 cups (770 g) canned and drained or cooked kidney beans
• 2 cups (480 g) canned and drained or cooked garbanzo beans
• 1 cup (150 g) chopped onion
• 2⁄3 cup (98 g) chopped sweet pepper
• 1 cup (237 ml) red wine vinegar (5% acidity)
• 1 cup (237 ml) bottled lemon juice
• 1 1⁄2 cups (300 g) sugar
• 1⁄2 cup (118 ml) olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 
2 1⁄2 cups (593 ml) water

Instructions

1. Combine the snap beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, onion and pepper in a bowl and set it aside.
2. In a nonreactive stockpot (like stainless streel), combine the vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, olive oil, sea salt and water. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Then, add the bean mixture and let it simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the pot from the heat, let the beans cool to lukewarm, then refrigerate the beans for 12 to 14 hours to marinate them.
4. The next day, prepare the water bath canner by filling it halfway with water and putting it on the stove to simmer. Check the jars for any nicks or cracks, wash them in hot soapy water and rinse them in hot water. Keep the jars hot until it’s time to use them. Wash the lids in hot soapy water and rinse them.
5. Bring the bean mixture to boil and then ladle the mixture into the prepared jars, leaving 1⁄2 inch (12 mm) of headspace. Remove the air bubbles with a bubble remover tool or chopstick and recheck the headspace; add more brine if necessary. Wipe the rims with a clean cloth, put the lids on the jars and screw on the bands. Place the jars in the prepared hot water bath canner, making sure that the jars are covered by at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water.
6. Bring the water to a full rolling boil and put the lid on the canner. Process the jars for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude, if necessary.
7. Arrange a folded towel on the counter or table. Remove the jars, using a jar lifter, and place them on the towel. Let the jars cool for at least 12 hours.
8. Once the jars are cooled, remove the bands and check the seals. If any jars fail to seal, put them in the refrigerator to use first. Wipe the jars with a clean cloth, and store them for up to a year.

Notes

Altitude adjustments for canning 3 bean salad are as follows:

• For 0 to 1,000 Feet in elevation, process for 15 minutes
• For 1,001 to 6,000 Feet in elevation, process for 20 minutes
• Above 6,000 feet, process for 25 minutes

Pickling Recipes

Looking for more pickle recipes?  I have plenty of pickled salad and relish recipes to share…

• Corn Relish
• Pickled Beets
• Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles