If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love bean salads. And I mean really, really love bean salads. They’re simple to make, endlessly customizable, filling, and they keep for days in the fridge depending on the ingredients—making them perfect for the busy parent, student, and any other person looking to make their post-work schedule feel less like a second job. That said, because of what I might call a slight bean addiction, it was no surprise that when I tried the chickpea salad at Poppy’s, a cafe in Brooklyn, I immediately knew I had to try to recreate it so that I’d always have it at the ready.
Let’s rewind to a cold Saturday a few weeks ago where I reluctantly made my way to Carroll Gardens, a charming Brooklyn neighborhood, to get my phone screen fixed. The repair guy told me it would take two hours. Since I’m completely reliant on my phone and couldn’t bear the thought of killing that much time away from home without it—or without someone to hang out with—I made a last-ditch call to my boyfriend and pleaded with him to meet me. He agreed, but only after I promised to buy him lunch.
I haven’t spent much time in that neighborhood before, so I wasn’t sure where to bring him, but luckily for me, when I searched “food near me” on his phone, Poppy’s came up. Ever since we hosted Jamie Erickson, the founder of Poppy’s at Food52 to cook with Amanda, —and after enjoying their catering at several of our events—I’d been meaning to visit one of their locations. I’d hoped to find their potato latkes with beet-cured smoked salmon (a favorite from their catering menu), but instead, I went for a prepared bean salad. It had chickpeas, fennel, halloumi (my favorite), dill, and an apple cider vinaigrette. Simple? Yes. But also: delicious. So delicious that the very next week, I went straight into the Test Kitchen to recreate it—for my own selfish reasons and because I knew so many of you would love it, too. While it’s not exactly the same, it’s pretty darn close, and has become a regular in my winter rotation.
What are your favorite bean salad recipes? Let me know in the comments!