White Bean Salad with Parmesan, Tomatoes, and Crispy Bacon

This white bean salad is so flavorful and great served with flatbread for dinner. It combines cannellini beans with sweet tomatoes, crispy bacon, sweet pepper, Parmesan, red onion, and a bright lemon-Dijon dressing. It’s hearty enough for dinner but also great as a side dish or a dish to bring to potlucks and get-togethers.

What You Need

What you need for 4 servings of the white bean salad:

For the Salad

• White Beans – 2 cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (with each can about 400 grams or 14 oz)
• Bacon – 3.5 oz streaky bacon (100 grams, about 5 rashers), see note below
• Sweet Red Pepper – 1 large sweet pepper or red bell pepper, seeds removed and diced
• Red Onion – 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• Parmesan – 2 oz parmesan (60 grams), shaved
• Tomatoes – 8 oz sweet tomatoes (baby plum or cherry tomatoes), halved

For the Salad Dressing

• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• Fresh Parsley – 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
• Lemon – 1 lemon for the zest and 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• Mustard – 1/2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
• Salt & Pepper – salt and pepper to taste

Notes: For a vegetarian version (or if you simply don’t eat bacon), you can replace the bacon with 1 avocado and 2 oz (or 60 grams) of feta, crumbled.

How to Make It

Step 1. Make the salad dressing by combining the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, fresh parsley, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the white beans and toss with the dressing until evenly coated.

Let them sit while preparing the bacon & remaining salad ingredients. They’ll absorb a lot of the flavor from the dressing.

Step 2. Make the crispy bacon using your preferred method. I like to take 2 baking sheets of an equal size. Then, I place parchment paper/baking paper on one and add the bacon rashers on top. Cover with parchment paper and then place the second baking sheet on top. The second tray keeps them flat, allowing them to get evenly crisp.

Bake in the preheated oven at 400°F (or 200°C) until you achieve your desired crispiness. For the ones below, it took about 20 minutes.

You could also make the crispy bacon in a frying pan on the stove or in an air fryer.

Once the bacon cools, chop it up to add to the salad.

Step 3. Add the remaining ingredients to the salad: halved baby tomatoes, chopped crispy bacon, shaved parmesan, diced sweet pepper, thinly sliced red onion.

Gently toss until everything is combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding salt, pepper, or lemon juice if needed. Serve with warm flatbreads.

You could also serve this with a fresh baguette, toasted ciabatta, or grilled sourdough bread instead of the flatbreads. If you want extra protein for a heartier meal, you could serve it with grilled chicken.

Variations

For the vegetarian version mentioned above, replace the bacon with 1 large avocado and 2 oz of feta. Add the diced avocado flesh and crumbled feta to the other salad ingredients and toss.

If you make the salad and love it, let me know in a review below.

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