Name: Balsamic Three Bean Salad
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces; 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette; 1/4 cup sugar; 1 garlic clove, minced; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 2 cans kidney beans (16 ounces each) rinsed and drained; 2 cans cannellini beans (15 ounces each) rinsed and drained; 4 fresh basil leaves, torn

Balsamic Three Bean Salad

When you're having a barbecue, the last thing you need is to be stressed out, it's supposed to be fun! For me, one of the best ways to avoid that is to choose a few simple make ahead recipes, like this Balsamic Three Bean Salad.

You start out with some fresh green beans, trimmed and steamed until crisp tender. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you pick up a bag of frozen "steam in bag" green beans and no one is the wiser! I'll never tell. That being said, the one step you do not want to skimp or skip is draining and rinsing the canned beans, trust me on that one!

Using the bottled vinaigrette definitely makes things easy, but you can quickly throw together your own if you aren't a fan of store bought. The longer this sits the better, I liked it the same day, but I really loved it the next day.

Another day of #BBQWeek is in the books! Scroll down below the recipe to see what the other bloggers are sharing today!

Balsamic Three Bean Salad

Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cans kidney beans (16 ounces each) rinsed and drained
2 cans cannellini beans (15 ounces each) rinsed and drained
4 fresh basil leaves, torn

Instructions

Fill a Dutch oven three-fourths full with water; bring to a boil. Add green beans; cook, uncovered, 3-6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and immediately drop into ice water. Drain and pat dry.
In a large bowl, whisk vinaigrette, sugar, garlic and salt until sugar is dissolved. Add canned beans and green beans; toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, at least 4 hours. Stir in basil just before serving.