Ensalada de Alubias or Beans Salad
A Traditional and Complete Spanish Summer Dish
Beans Salad (or Ensalada de Alubias) is a healthy and complete dish from Spain. This salad, with vegetables, beans, egg and tuna is perfect for hot summer days.
Ingredients:
(This recipe serves four, but always according to the quantity of ingredients you prefer to add, according to one’s taste)
- lettuce
- 1 tomato (or 2, depending on their size.)
- ½ (medium) onion
- 1 green pepper (or green and red pepper)
- 2 eggs
- white kidney beans. (300 gr.)
- salt
- 1 can of corn
- 1 can of tune (preferably in olive oil), drained.
About beans: You can either buy cooked white beans, but if you prefer, use dry beans. If so, soak them overnight; drain water from beans and boil, with fresh water and salt, until tender. When done, remove them from heat and chill.
Cook eggs for 15-20 minutes (if you add some salt to the water, eggs won’t break while cooking). Meanwhile, chop the lettuce, tomato and pepper. Also peel and cut the onion in very small slices. When ready, in a bowl, add the tuna, the corn and washed and chopped lettuce, tomatoes, pepper and onion together with the boiled rinsed beans.
When eggs are cooked, let them chill and then peel and cut them into small pieces and add to the salad.
When all the ingredients are ready, add olive oil (much better for our health is you can add virgin olive oil), salt and vinegar (If you like it), mix and put it in the fridge until served.
This is a very complete, practical and easy to make dish, as it can be prepared before going out in the morning, and just take it from the fridge and serve it for lunch.
As said before, it all depends on you or your family taste, so you can add more or less lettuce, tuna or corn. Or, if you prefer, add any other different ingredients you like, as olives, cooked beet (I usually buy it cooked), sprout soy or carrots, preferably cut in small pieces, slides or scratched.
Finally, some nutritional information on this White Beans Salad’s main ingredients:
- Tuna: Apart from its good taste and nutritional properties, it can help you lower cholesterol, and its omega-3 fatty acids can prevent heart disease, ease arthritis pain and what’s more important, it is very important for the development of children.
- Lettuce provides lots of vitamins: A, C, K, B6 and iron, potassium, calcium or magnesium.
- White beans (100 g. -3.5 ounces) provides:
Carbs: 12.5; Fiber: 9 g.; Fat: 0.5 g,; Energy: 375 Kj.
- Tomato: Low in cholesterol and also provides a lot of vitamins: C, A, K, E, and magnesium, phosphorus or copper.
So, as you can see, this salad is not just another summer easy-to-make dish, but also a great vitamins and proteins source, very important for both adults and children.
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