For all its foibles, there’s no denying that TikTok will occasionally churn out something pretty great. The feta and tomato pasta. Eating an entire cucumber. And now, the dense bean salad.

As with most TikTok recipe trends, the dense bean salad (DBS) isn’t reinventing the wheel – ostensibly it’s a big batch of three-bean salad. But thanks to creator Violet Witchel the high protein, forgiving and totally customisable DBS is on the cutting edge of food fashion.

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What is a dense bean salad?

In the world according to Witchel, the DBS is a large-scale salad mix of tinned chickpeas, cannellini beans, kidney beans, raw or cooked veggies, grilled meat, cheese (like crumbled feta or even tofu), and some sort of dressing. 

There are no time constraints on this salad either – in fact, the whole idea is to let the salad macerate throughout the week, letting the dressing pull out all the juices from your tomato/onion/cucumber/whatever and the flavours meld. 

Bottom of the fridge clean out and a couple of pantry staples? We just found our new obsession. 

What is in a dense bean salad?

Witchel has shared a playlist of her favourite dense bean salad recipes on her TikTok page, including a spicy chipotle chicken mix with charred corn, avocado, tomato, coriander and a creamy, lime-based dressing.

Her Italian-style sundried tomato, borlotti beans and bocconcini DBS is loaded up with artichokes, ham or sliced salami, and fresh herbs and is screaming to be stacked in a wrap or scooped onto crostini. 

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Are dense bean salads healthy?

The salads have racked up millions of views in the space of a few months and are being praised for their flexibility, approachability, and balance of protein and complex carbohydrates. A grab-and-go lunch, or easy snack, the DBSs are also great to have in your repertoire as backyard barbecue season ramps up. And with all that fibre, the comments section will tell you of other, more corporal benefits. We’ll leave it at that.

Looking for some inspiration? We’ve pulled together some of our absolute favourite bean salads for your next salad sesh. Make some room in your lunchbox for these 27 bean salads.

Dense bean salad recipe

Serves 4. Preparation 10 minutes.

INGREDIENTS
400g can cannellini beans, rinsed, drained
400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
1 Lebanese cucumber, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
125g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (stems included)
⅓ cup (50g) pine nuts, toasted
100g feta, crumbled
1 garlic clove, crushed
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
⅓ cup (80ml) extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.

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