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Lettuce beans tomatoes cheese crackers

Bean, Tomato, Cheese, and Crouton Salad

Very simple and quick, made from everyday ingredients! This salad of beans, tomatoes, cheese, and croutons is a recipe that proves a hearty salad can be made without meat. Here, that role is played by protein-rich canned beans. The salad works for everyday meals and for holidays alike.

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Canned beans

250

Tomatoes

300

Hard cheese

Croutons

Mayonnaise

Dill

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 25 % 7 g

Fats 29 % 8 g

Carbohydrates 46 % 13 g

149 kcal

GI: 15 / 0 / 85

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

How do you make a salad of beans, tomatoes, cheese, and croutons? Gather all the ingredients. You can use white canned beans, red, or a mix of both. It also works well with green beans — they'll just need to be boiled in salted water until tender first.
Step 2:

Drain all the liquid from the canned beans and tip them into a colander. It's a good idea to rinse the beans with cold water to remove any of the viscous packing liquid. Pat the rinsed beans dry.
Step 3:

You can use store-bought croutons and vary the flavor of your salad depending on their seasoning, or make your own. Croutons can be made from white or dark bread, whichever you prefer. Wheat-bread croutons soak up moisture faster in the salad, though, so I always go with rye. How do you make croutons? Cut rye bread into small cubes and dry them on a baking sheet in the oven at 350°F for 15–20 minutes. Let the finished croutons cool.
Step 4:

Wash and dry the tomatoes and cut them into sticks. For this salad, choose tomatoes that are fleshy and not too watery. If a tomato is very juicy, it's better to cut out the seedy middle first and then cut the flesh into sticks.
Step 5:

Cut the cheese into thin strips. You can grate it if you prefer. I like cutting it into strips for some uniformity, since we cut the tomatoes and croutons into sticks too. Above all, use a tasty, good-quality cheese with no milk-fat substitutes.
Step 6:

Wash, dry, and finely chop the herbs.
Step 7:

In a salad bowl, combine the tomatoes, canned red beans, cheese, croutons, and herbs. Dress the salad with mayonnaise. You can add salt and pepper if you like, but personally I very rarely add spices to salads with mayonnaise.
Step 8:

Mix everything thoroughly and serve immediately. Enjoy! If you're not planning to serve the salad right away or within the next 10–15 minutes, it's best to leave out the croutons and mayonnaise. The croutons will quickly soften and lose their crunch — especially fast with wheat-bread ones.

The salad will look neat and attractive if you cut all the ingredients into pieces of the same size and shape (cubes, for example).
It's better to make your own mayonnaise — it'll be tastier and healthier. Check out our interesting recipes for homemade mayonnaise. You can also use sour cream or plain yogurt as a dressing instead of mayonnaise, either on their own or mixed with mayonnaise in any ratio you like — this will cut down on calories.
Choose tomatoes that are juicy but firm. Soft ones don't hold their shape well; as you cut and prepare them they'll fall apart into a shapeless mush and spoil the look of the dish.