zweitblog-manu: Camping Cuisine Part 5: Great Travelling Bean Salad

This is the last of my 5-part series on recipes for camping trips.

Whew! Are you bored yet, or are you inspired?

I like to think that I have inspired some campers to mix it up a little. I hope so.

To be clear, we do have hamburgers sometimes....everyone in our family likes them. I just make sure that I make the burgers before we leave home so that my husband just has to put them on the grill.

And we take hotdogs for snacks because, afterall, what is a camping trip without roasting weinies on a campfire?

On our last camping trip, I took along a bean salad which included lots of veggies. It's a fresh take on the bean salad that we all used to eat 20 years ago...you know...the one with the canned wax yellow & green beans. The recipe comes from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry. (I know, I know..those sisters again.)

I chose this recipe because it's a marinated salad and it only gets better with age, therefore, it makes a great camping recipe.

I modified the recipe a bit because my husband is not crazy about too many beans. {And everyone has to sleep in a tent together...so enough said about that.} So I reduced the bean requirement to half and added more diced bell peppers.

The recipe made so much that it actually fed 3 families and we still had some leftover!

The recipe is two parts: one part for the beans & veggies; one part for the dressing. The ingredient list seems long, but the effort is worth it...I promise!

Salad:
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans, lightly steamed to just bright green. {I used frozen organic from Costco.}
1cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Note: You are only using half a can of beans for the above beans. I tossed the leftover beans into a ziploc bag & placed in the freezer.
1 can whole kernel corn ( I used mini corn...I just like the look better.)
1 cup diced red onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
Dressing:
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. celery seed
salt & pepper to taste.

Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well.
Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over salad ingredients. Stir gently. Cover and refrigerate overnight.