Bean Salad Is Your Key To Easy Meal Prep

The Sunday Scaries are real. You've just started to recover from the previous week until you realize you're about to start the monotonous routine all over again. Though the last thing you want to think about is the week ahead, I promise you: Meal prep will make both the end-of-weekend blues and work week all the more bearable. The thought of meal prepping may scare off some home cooks — needing to cook enough protein, starch, and vegetables to round out a balanced plate for the entire week can sound like too much toil for a Sunday evening. Lindsay Livingston, Registered Dietitian and writer of The Lean Green Bean blog, has the solution: bean salad.

Beans are a holistic ingredient (though Americans are hesitant to love them). They are classified as a vegetable, considered a starch in many cases, and are rich in protein. They hit all of the bases. And with added components to make a bean salad, you'll be hitting a meal prep home run. Bean salads require minimal work yet cover many of the essential food groups, such as this effortless tomato bean salad.

Livingston's tips for the best meal-prepped bean salad are all aimed at making the process as simple as possible. When it comes to the dressing, basic can still be flavorful. Livingston suggested mixing red wine vinegar, oil, mustard, and maple syrup or honey together. Similar to a classic vinaigrette, her dressing is tangy with sweet nuances. There are many ways to make meal prep even easier, and Livingston said a store-bought salad dressing can be used as a bean salad marinade.

Other than beans (chickpeas, kidney beans, and cannellini beans are good options) Livingston suggested adding chopped vegetables to the mix. "Veggies like carrots, celery, onions, and bell peppers hold up great in meal prep salads," she told The Takeout. "You could also try things like raw broccoli, cauliflower, and kale."

One of the woes of pre-made salad is the risk of wilting the vegetables and reducing their crunchy texture to something soggy by mixing in the dressing ahead of time. However, Livingston said the beans and vegetables in bean salad are fibrous and sturdy enough to add in the salad as you prep. "The beans and veggies will absorb the flavor as the week goes on," she said. "Kale can also handle dressing ahead of time." When weaker greens are involved, though, she advised against pouring over the dressing days before eating.