Three Bean Salad
April 11, 2020
I woke up this morning dreaming about Three Bean Salad.
It’s a rather strange concoction if you really think about it: red kidney beans, wax beans, green beans, onions and peppers marinated in a sweet and sour dressing of sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. I haven’t eaten three bean salad in YEARS, yet oddly enough this morning I could literally taste those delectable marinated beans as if I had just put a big spoonful in my mouth.
As a child, Three Bean Salad was one of those side dishes I always looked forward to at a family gathering. My grandmother prepared it for Easter, Father’s Day and other special family events. I had been planning my menu for Easter and that must have led to a dream about her, and along with Grandmama came thoughts of Three Bean Salad. I remember I used to carefully pick out the onions and green peppers, pushing them to side of my plate so I could hone in on the sweet, tangy beans.
Food memories are powerful and can transport back in time and connect us to the past like no other memories. Entwined with the aftertaste of Three Bean Salad in my mouth come the memories of Grandmama standing in her kitchen at the stove, stirring and chatting, plopping spoonfuls of bacon grease into the squash and green beans, brushing butter on the white dinner rolls I could never get enough of. She always set the table so beautifully with a pristinely ironed white tablecloth and her fancy wedding china. She was especially proud of her set of sterling silver flatware in the “Old Masters” pattern. Since I was her only granddaughter, every time I went to her house she promised me that someday it would be mine. She delivered on that promise just a couple of years before she passed. She and Granddaddy polished every single piece, wrapped it up in a big box and gave it to me for Christmas.
I told my daughter about the Three Bean Salad dream and she asked me, “Mom, are you going to make it?”
“Oh, no”, I replied with my keto-trained brain. “It’s so full of sugar and really isn’t good for us.”
Seriously? I must have experienced a moment of temporary insanity…like anything else on Easter menu was going to be low-carb, dairy-free or sugar-free! Let’s see, there was brown-sugar glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, cheesy broccoli casserole, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, blueberry jello salad, candied carrots, yeast rolls and carrot cake. Not one single “healthy” item on the menu. What on earth was I thinking? At least the Three Bean Salad contained some sort of vegetable.
While I am normally disciplined about what I eat and make healthy choices most of the time, on a holiday I simply cannot. I refuse. My food memories are too entwined with my sense of love, stability and southern family roots. They cause me to remember who I am and where I came from. Eating these things reminds me of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, hugging and kissing, laughing and joking, and all the times we enjoyed gathering around the table as family.
So this Easter I will forget Keto and Paleo and Against the Grain and all the books I’ve studied on nutrition and health. Instead, I will eat what I love. I will feast. I will remember.
This year is different and we will only celebrate with immediately family due to the Coronavirus. I realize I may be the only person at the table who appreciates Three Bean Salad, but I honestly don’t care. As an ode to my grandmother, I’ll eat those sugary canned beans, along with sweet glazed ham on forbidden white bread. And I will feel the love in every bite.
Right now I’m headed to the store to get those cans of beans.
Three Bean Salad Recipe
Ingredients1 15-ounce can cut green beans1 15-ounce can red kidney beans1 15-ounce can cut wax beans1/2 green pepper1/2 small sweet yellow onion1/2 cup apple cider vinegar1/2 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup vegetable oil1 1/2 teaspoons salt1 teaspoon ground black pepper
InstructionsDrain each can of beans in a strainer and rinse with cool water. Add to bowl.Thinly slice yellow onion and green pepper. Add to bowl with the beans.Whisk the vinegar, sugar, oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pour over the beans and vegetables and toss lightly.Refrigerate for at least 12 hours, stirring a few times.Serve chilled or at room temperature.