Today we're preparing a three-bean rice salad with fresh lemon, red onion, and fresh Italian parsley. The end result is a flavorful, fresh, and blissfully simple salad.

Why You'll Love Today's Salad

1) Super Simple. Aside from cooking the rice, today's bean salad takes mere minutes to make. If you can open a few cans of beans, chop up some ingredients, and then mix them all together with your prepared rice, you can make today's salad.

2) Make Ahead Friendly. Personally, I actually think that today's salad tastes even better after it has sat overnight in the fridge. In addition, it keeps beautifully for around three days, meaning this salad is perfectly 'make ahead friendly.'

3) Only Simple Ingredients. Featuring no exotic ingredients, today's salad is the very definition of 'pantry friendly.'

Ingredient Notes and Tips

1) The beans. We're using kidney, butter, and black beans for today's salad. However, any 'meaty' or 'protein packed' beans work. The trick is to use 'substantial' beans, since the beans aren't only adding flavor, they're also adding texture. Other candidates for today's salad include Cannellini beans, since they are the largest and 'meatiest' of the 'white bean' group. Pinto beans are also a great choice, due to their creamy texture and earthy flavor. Another great choice for today's salad are chick peas, which would meld nicely with the butter beans. However, there really isn't a 'wrong' bean, so mix and match to find your favorite combination.

2) Fresh Lemon Juice. You really want to use fresh juice for today's recipe. To start, slicing a lemon into squeezable halves or wedges is practically as easy as opening a bottle and measuring it out. Beyond that, bottled lemon juice simply isn't as flavorful, lacking the full 'zest' or 'brightness' of fresh lemon juice, since the juice begins breaking down chemically almost as soon as it leaves the lemon. Beyond that, the juice's flavor is often times further diluted with preservatives. As a result, if you want the full flavor and balance intended in today's recipe, use fresh lemon juice.

3) Red Onion. Red Onions are the go-to onion for 'uncooked' recipes, being sweet, crisp, just a touch pungent, and a beautiful shade of 'vegetable red.' And this remains true for today's recipe. Red onions often feature prominently in things like Greek and Sicilian salads, fresh salsas, and the like. Also, if we're being honest, they really do 'not' cook well, since their beautiful red color simply washes out under heat, while their taste becomes almost identical to that of yellow onions, taking on something of a 'muted' sweetness.

More Salad Goodness From Living the Gourmet

1) Moroccan Tomato Salad. A surprise hit with my family, this Moroccan tomato salad is so simple, and yet so delicious, that it instantly won a place in my heart.

2) Crisp Cucumber Salad. Crisp, refreshing, and taking just minutes to prepare while featuring a medley of Mediterranean flavors, this salad is perfect for adding a touch of 'simple elegance' to any meal.

3) Layered Eggplant Salad. Breaded eggplant, combined with fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, and grated romaine, combine to create a delicious take on baked eggplant that's sure to be a hit with your friends and family.