Canning 3 Bean Salad - Favorite Recipe (2024)

By now you might have gathered that I have a bit of a thing for growing and preserving green beans. We always get a bumper crop of beans from the garden and pickled bean salad really hits the spot. Today we’re diving into canning 3 bean salad, plus I’m going to share with you my absolute favorite bean salad recipe.

We enjoy this salad during the summer but LOVE having it in the dead of winter as well. By following my recipe for canning, you can enjoy it all year long as well. And a bonus on this pickled recipe is that you do not need to have a pressure canner.

If you’ve ever tried storebought 3 bean salad, you might not have been a huge fan. Personally, I think storebought is simply too syrupy and sweet. My salad has a sweet tang but is not too sweet.

I usually save any pressure canned beans where the jar didn’t seal properly and can them into bean salad. Yes, it happens. We all have failed jars. Rather than reprocessing (which you can do), I recommend you try this salad.

Fresh, Dried, or Canned Beans?

All of your beans need to be precooked for this recipe and for canning. Below is a breakdown, including cooking/method and times. You can see for all three types, I prefer to use my Instant Pot.

• Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)

  • Canned – Simply drain and rinse your chickpeas before adding them to your brine.
  • Dried – To cook, do NOT pre-soak your beans since they have a tendency to get mushy if pre-soaked. To pressure cook in the Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 45 minutes and natural release for 20 minutes. You will notice a skin on the outside of your cooked chickpea. While this is tedious, you’ll want to remove the skin, (I recommend you recruit helpers).

• Kidney Beans

  • Canned – Same thing as the chickpeas, simply drain and rinse before adding them to your brine.
  • Dried – To cook, do NOT pre-soak your beans, which can cause them to break down some. To pressure cook in the Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 30 minutes and natural release for 20 minutes.

• Green Beans

  • Canned – If you’re in a pinch, you can use canned, drain, and rinse well.
  • Fresh – At a minimum, these should be steamed for 5 minutes on the stovetop. I prefer to steam in my instant pot as well. Place your rack in the bottom of your canner, add 1 cup of water, and lay your beans on the rack. Cook on high pressure for 0 minutes and quick release.

Bean Combinations for Canning 3 Bean Salad

Depending on your garden, availability, or taste preferences, you have options for different bean combinations. Here are some ideas for you to mix and match beans for your salad. Just remember that you want to end up with about 9 cups of fresh beans and 7 cups of cooked (dried beans).

Fresh Beans

• Green Beans
• Yellow Wax Beans
• Dragon Tongue Beans – these are my new favorite and easy to see in the garden
• Long Beans

Dried Beans

• Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Black Beans
• Lima Beans
• Cannellini Beans
• Black Eyed Peas

With that let’s get into the recipe and canning 3 bean salad…

This recipe produces about 6 pints, but I’ve noticed it can vary depending on how tightly I pack my jars. I had leftover brine on one batch and simply heated more vegetables and canned to use that up.

Easy peasy! We’ve been enjoying this salad all winter long and definitely have this on our docket to can this summer again.

Do you have any favorite beans I left off? I’d love to hear your favorites in the comments!