Rajma salad - Kidney beans salad

Kidney beans salad - a very simple and tasty salad recipe with rajma that can be prepared quickly and easily.

Why you should make this salad:

• Firstly, it so simple and very tasty salad and you should try it at least once. And if you make this once, I am sure you will add this regularly to your meal plan.
• Kidney beans have high protein content, a good amount of Iron, Manganese, and Potassium. It's always good to include different beans and grains for overall health and wellness. And this salad is an easy way to include these red kidney beans in your diet.
• As this is a make-ahead kind of salad, you can pack this for lunch or snacks for work.
• Leftovers can be refrigerated.
• This salad is mildly spiced and hence kids will also approve this.
• If you want to have a light dinner or lunch, make this salad. Light on the stomach yet healthy.

Main ingredients of this red kidney bean salad:

• Rajma: Kidney beans, also called as Rajma, is a staple in North India and I love Rajma Chawal so much. Apart from traditional recipes, I also make salads and soups with these beans. If you are the ones who will have digestion issues with these beans, please read how to cook the rajma section.

• Cold-pressed olive oil: If you do not have olive oil in your pantry, you can use Coconut oil or ghee or any cold-pressed oil. As olive oil has a very low smoking point, I do not use it for cooking and use it only for making salads and basil pesto.
• Salad veggies of your choice: I used tomatoes and onion but you can also add cucumbers, bell peppers, salad leaves like rocket leaves, arugula, baby spinach.
• Avocado: Avocado is rich in mono-saturated fatty acids which is good for heart health. It grows only in few parts of India and usually called "Butter fruit" or "Makkan-phal". You can safely skip avocado if you don't have them. If it is available for you, use it as Avocado makes this salad rich and creamy.
• Herbs and spices: You need not make the salad dressing separately for this recipe. Add the grated garlic, chopped green chili, coriander, and lemon juice to the beans and veggies. Lemon juice will help to prevent the avocado from oxidizing. Make sure to add salt just before serving.
• Walnuts: You should have a handful of nuts every day. Adding these to the salad makes it tastier and nutritious.

Detailed steps for making rajma salad recipe:

• Soak kidney beans or rajma for 8 hours or over-night.
• Wash the soaked beans twice and cook it with 1 cup of fresh water in a pressure cooker for 4 - 5 whistles. Add little salt while cooking beans. Beans should not be mushy as we are making the salad.
• While beans are cooking, finely chop tomatoes, onion, coriander leaves, and green chili. Grate the garlic pod and keep it aside.

• Take a mixing bowl and add finely chopped tomatoes, onions, coriander leaves, green chilis, olive oil, lemon juice, grated garlic, and salt. Mix everything well.
• Drain water from cooked beans and add beans, chopped walnuts to the above mixture.

• Mix everything well.

• Add chopped Avocado and stir in. The salad is ready to serve!

Recipe Notes and variations:

• You can use canned beans for this recipe. Drain them completely and proceed with other steps.
• You can use chickpeas or black-eyed peas or black beans instead of red kidney beans to make this salad recipe.
• To make it a little more filling meal, you can add roasted or boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes.
• To make this salad as nut-free, you can add any kind of seeds like sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or pumpkin seeds.
• You can use almonds or cashews or any other nuts also along with or in place of walnuts. Portion control is the key.

I find bean salads as a simple and healthy way to include different kinds of beans and lentils in our daily diet. As you are here, you might be interested in other similar salad recipes.

Indian style chickpea salad

Lobia Salad ( black-eyed peas salad)

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Recipe for Kidney beans salad:

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