Pesto White Bean Salad

This no-cook summer Pesto White Bean Salad is bursting with bright basil pesto, crunchy cucumbers, creamy beans, and peppery arugula. Perfect for hot summer nights, this gluten free and vegan dish gets even more flavorful as it sits, making it the perfect healthy picnic and potluck dish.

There are salads with lettuce and dressing and then there are salads. Hearty, delicious, fill you up, full of summertime flavors, packed with texture, no-lettuce-to-be-found salads. And this Pesto White Bean Salad is one of those salads.

This Pesto White Bean Salad has some major players, none of which are lettuce:

• bright and lemony basil pesto that tastes like summer (and is vegan too!)
• creamy, melt in your mouth, cannellini beans
• crunchy nutty pine nuts that cost a pretty penny but are SO worth it in this Pesto White Bean Salad
• cool and crisp cucumber
• and an extra kick of flavor from a few handfuls of peppery arugula

Then this all gets tossed together until the flavors marinate and coat each and every bite of this crunchy, creamy, and cool salad.

Now can we take a closer look at this pesto for a moment? It deserves it’s 15 minutes of fame for all the creamy, bright, and fresh flavor it brings to this Pesto White Bean Salad.

First off, pesto is surprisingly easy! All you have to do is add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and then drizzle in enough olive oil to get it whirling. A sauce will form in about 45 seconds and presto! you just made pesto!

Not only is this pesto the perfect dressing for our Pesto White Bean Salad, it is one versatile sauce. I like to drizzle it over grilled veggies, slather it on sandwiches, and of course, toss it with pasta. And you’ll have leftover pesto from this recipe, so get your pesto thinking caps on. The sky is the limit when it comes to this sauce!

There are many reasons to love this Pesto White Bean Salad, but the best is perhaps the fact that it is no cook! With this sweltering summer heat wave, my oven has been one once this last week. The second I turn that hot box on, my apartment rises 5 degrees! And in 100 degree temps, not even food can bring me to turn that thing on!

Pesto White Bean Salad

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Sides
• Cuisine: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, grain-free, no nightshades, refined sugar-free, soy-free, sugar-free, vegan, vegetarian

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Description

This no-cook summer Pesto White Bean Salad is bursting with bright basil pesto, crunchy cucumbers, creamy beans, and peppery arugula. Perfect for hot summer nights, this gluten free and vegan dish gets even more flavorful as it sits, making it the perfect healthy picnic and potluck dish. | CatchingSeeds.com

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Ingredients

For the Basil Arugula Pesto:

• 2 oz basil
• 2 oz arugula
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the salad:

• 2 cans cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 English cucumber (chopped into bite sized pieces)
• 2 big handfuls of arugula
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons pesto
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

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Instructions

1. Add all the pesto ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend until it becomes a thick sauce, scraping down the sides as necessary. Reserve 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons for the salad and place the rest in a lidded container. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.
2. Add the cucumber to a large bowl and add in a pinch of salt. Toss the cucumber and let them sit for 5 minutes. Add in the remaining salad ingredients and toss to coat. Serve with extra pepper and lemon if desired.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 0
• Sugar: 0
• Sodium: 0
• Fat: 0
• Saturated Fat: 0
• Trans Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 0
• Fiber: 0
• Protein: 0
• Cholesterol: 0