Salad with Beans and Mushrooms

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make a salad with beans and mushrooms? Get your ingredients ready. You can use any beans — boiled or canned — and any mushrooms: fried, pickled, or salt-cured. I used salt-cured milk-cap mushrooms, but any wild mushrooms or button mushrooms will do. Cut the mushrooms into small cubes. Fresh mushrooms can be sautéed in vegetable oil.

2. Step 2:

   

   I cooked dried beans — it's best to do this ahead of time so everything's ready when you assemble the salad. Soak the beans overnight in cold water, change the water in the morning, and boil them for about 30 minutes until soft, then drain.

3. Step 3:

   

   You can round out the mushrooms and beans with other tasty ingredients, like boiled eggs. Hard-boil the eggs for 10 minutes so the yolks don't take on an unattractive gray-green tinge.

4. Step 4:

   

   Cool the eggs, peel them, and grate or finely chop them. If you're building the salad in layers, you can separate the yolks from the whites.

5. Step 5:

   

   Peel the onion and finely chop it. A sweet salad onion is best, or a regular one that you've first marinated in wine vinegar or doused with boiling water to take the edge off. You can use green onion instead, or any other fresh herbs.

6. Step 6:

   

   Cheese rounds out and highlights these flavors beautifully, and you can use any kind — hard, soft, smoked processed, or melting cheese, whatever you prefer. Processed cheese is harder to grate, so pop it in the freezer for a bit and it'll grate easily. I used smoked processed cheese, which gives the salad a pleasant smoky note.

7. Step 7:

   

   You can combine everything in a large bowl and simply toss it with mayonnaise. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste.

8. Step 8:

   

   Or, for a holiday table, you can layer the ingredients, spreading a thin layer of mayonnaise between each.

9. Step 9:

   

   Let the salad rest in the refrigerator, then serve. Enjoy!