Mediterranean Beans Salad Recipe

I was at El Fresco the other night for light dinner and gave the salad bar a try when I fell insanely in love with the Mediterranean Beans Salad. As I nomed my way finishing the salad, I started thinking about how easy it can be to make this at home!

My light but yummy dinner at El Fresco.

So I did a little research on-line, mix and match from all different recipes I found, choosing those ingredients that I prefer to make my very own homemade Mediterranean Beans Salad!

What you need:
1 can of chicpeas, 1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of corn kernels, 1/2 medium size onion chopped, half tomato chopped, half green capsicum chopped. fresh parsley chopped (I used dried one cos no parsley was available at the supermarket that day), olive oil, 1/2-1 lemon, salt, pepper

What to do:
1) Rinse chickpeas, kidney beans and corn kernels and drain.

2) Chop onion, tomato and green capsicum finely and put into a mixing bowl.

3) Add in the chickpeas, kidney beans and corn kernels.
4) Add in one-11/2 tablespoon of olive oil.

5) Squeeze lemon juice onto the ingredients.

6) Now add in the chopped parsley/dried parsley, then salt and pepper to taste. 

7) Stir everything up and the super easy salad is ready to be served! :)

My salad turned out to be really really delicious! Of course, if there is a second time, I would use fresh parsley in stead because the dried parsley just doesn't give the real aroma the salad needed. Deardo and I enjoyed the salad with some homemade Nando's oven-baked drumsticks for a healthier dinner. We have some leftover which I kept in the fridge and finished up the next night!

Mediterranean Beans Salad + Nando's Chicken = pretty perfect isn't it? 

To me personally, the salad is not only a great side, but also great to be eaten just as a main. It is indeed tummy-filling, tastes really good, low fat and pretty nutritious too! Of course if you could use fresh ingredients it would be even better, but that really defeats the purpose of making a quick and easy salad, isn't it?
If you are thinking of making your own Mediterranean Beans Salad, here's my advice: do not need to follow all the ingredients I use! If you dislike tomato, replace it with red capsicum; if you dislike capsicums, replace it with celery! Just make sure that you follow the only rule: make it colourful! :)