We’ve had to make big changes in our menu since my hubby has been put on a low sodium diet.  It is quite shocking to discover the sodium levels of our favorite foods! We had to give up one of our guilty pleasures:  Paisley Farm 4 Bean salad.

 

We always kept a jar in the fridge and topped a green salad with a couple spoonfuls of the sweet and tangy beans, or had a little bowl for a snack.  We were shocked at the sodium content.  310mg for 1/2 cup!  When your limit is 2000mg, the salad took too much of the “sodium budget.”

It seems you can eliminate sodium without sacrificing taste when sugar is part of the recipe.  Knowing that little fact got us experimenting with the recipe.  Nowadays you can find most canned vegetables without salt added or lower amounts of sodium.  YAY!

Now we use No Sodium Added green beans, garbanzo beans and low sodium kidney beans to make this salad.  I purchased and old fashioned Mason Jar with a lid and keep it filled with our low sodium version of 3 bean salad.  The sodium content for the whole jar is 460mg.  The jar contains 12 servings @ 31mgs. per serving!

Step One:  Open cans of beans, rinse and drain completely.

Step Two:  Cut 1/4 cup of finely minced onion.

Step Three:  Put the minced onion in the jar and make several layers of each variety of beans.

Step Four:  Combine 12 oz of white wine vinegar, a splash of apple cider vinegar and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl.

Step Five:  stir the sugar and vinegars until the sugar is completely dissolved then stir in 1/4 cup vegetable oil.  Pour the vinegar/oil mixture over the beans.

After all the ingredients are in the jar I give it a few gentle shakes to distribute the onions.  We let it sit in the fridge for at least 5 hours before the first bite :  )

You know me, my brain automatically goes to whimsical so it was inevitable I could dream up a saying for a greeting card….”How Ya Bean?”  I used my photo editing software to make an “oil painting” of the jar, and made a silly greeting card with the recipe on the back you can print out and send to someone you know who is watching their sodium.

CLICK AND PRINT:

Here is the recipe you can copy and paste to print: