Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad
Colorful, crunchy and fresh, this deliciously easy Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad makes a perfect cold side dish and takes just a few minutes to make. 
This easy bean salad has such a fond place in my memories. When I was a little girl you could be certain you’d find a bowl of this tangy, crunchy cold salad at the little country church potlucks I attended with my grandma.
Check out my other church potluck favorites:
Kidney bean salad takes just a handful of ingredients and transforms them into such a colorful and filling side dish. And it’s a great way to use up those hardboiled eggs you might have leftover from Easter. (Note my pretty shiny Easter eggs!)
To make Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad you’ll need:
2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sweet pickles, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/2 cup of Miracle Whip or mayo
Now let’s talk about some of these ingredients, substitutions and additions.
1) It doesn’t matter what color kidney beans you use. Dark red, light red, whatever your preference is fine! Shoot, you could even substitute in black beans or whatever canned bean you’ve got and it would probably still be tasty.
2) I like chopping up sweet pickles for my kidney bean salad because I like getting an actual bite of pickle in my salad. Feel free to substitute sweet pickle relish instead and make things even easier.
3) The dressing. You can use your preference of Miracle Whip or mayo. I know a lot of people feel very strongly about this one. Use what your taste buds like. Whatever you use, it’s going to mix in with the egg yolks and will give the salad a dressing that has a taste similar to a deviled egg. So I suggest using whatever you use to make your deviled eggs. I like both, but I think Miracle Whip tastes the best in this salad.
4) Sometimes I also add about 1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese to this salad. It makes a great addition.
This cold salad goes great with sandwiches, burgers, like my Juicy Burger loose meat sandwiches, and leftover Easter ham! Hope you’ll enjoy this old fashioned blast from the past as much as I do.
Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 2 15 ounce cans of kidney beans
- 2 stalks celery (chopped)
- 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
- 1/4 cup chopped sweet pickle
- 3 hard boiled eggs (chopped)
- 1/2 cup Miracle Whip or Mayo
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First drain and rinse off your kidney beans.
- Add the kidney beans to a medium sized bowl along with the chopped celery, onion, sweet pickles, hard boiled eggs, and Miracle Whip.
- Stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Will stay fresh in the fridge for several days. Just cover tightly with plastic wrap.
Notes
- Use whatever color kidney beans you have on hand, light red or dark red.
- Sweet pickle relish may be substituted for the chopped sweet pickles.
- Either Miracle Whip or mayo can be used for the dressing, use your preference.
When making this for a neighborhood lunch, one elder (mid-80s) gentleman (who grew up on a farm in northwest Indiana) said he had never seen anyone drain and rinse the kidney beans for this recipe before. Have you or any of your readers ever heard of making KBS with the sauce?
No Duke, I sure haven’t.
@Duke, My mother never drained hers either
@Duke,
Not only do I drain the liquid off the canned beans, I rinse them thoroughly in cold water.
This was always on holiday tables when I wAs growing up. And you nailed it spot on!🐷🐽🐣🐷🐥
I’m allergic to onion of any kind & garlic, what else can I use in place of them? I remember my grandma & daddy making this salad when I was little, so happy I found your?site. Thank you.
Hey Lynne, you can just feel free to omit the red onion. If you feel like you’d like add something to replace the bit of crunchiness it adds, perhaps some bell pepper would work well for you.
Amy D.
I remember eating this at family reunions.
It is still a favorite of mine.
Mine too! Always look forward to it at potlucks! Hope you enjoy Becky!
I added ribbon-chopped iceberg lettuce and drizzled the mayonnaise + sugar + garlic sauce on top. turned out great!
Quick and easy snack! Healthy too!
I think my mom must have made a variation of this. First of all, I don’t remember any eggs in it, but most importantly, it had cucumber chunks! She only put in celery if we had it. I’m thinking that maybe it was because this kidney bean salad was tied in my mind together with cucumber season when they were plentiful and she used them in so many things. So, I’m going to make it WITH eggs, and cucumbers.
Instead of making it sweet use some chilies and cucumbers instead in Asia they add cabbage also👌
Good morning… thanks for such a tasty salad. Remember having this on all the salad bars years ago at the local super clubs… the only thing I changed was I added dill dip that I had on hand in place of the miracle whip. Thanks for your obvious hard work..
My grandma turns 99 on the 10th of February and we are having a meal for her and of all the amazing things she made, this simple little salad is such a core memory for me and yet something I rarely make for myself. I even teared up a bit when you said leftover Easter eggs because that is exactly when I remember it the most. Anyway, for that 99th birthday celebration this is on the menu for sure! Thank you for posting the recipe. I had it right in my head but wanted to see if there was anything glaringly obvious I was missing.
I am so glad that you found this recipe and that you’re going to be able to celebrate your Grandma this way. What a blessing you have to have had so many great memories with her. Birthday blessings to her! Amy D.
My grandmother always made this for potlucks, I make it often.
My mom used to make this salad a lot. I haven’t made it in years but was craving the taste. I made an altered version this morning. Using Garbanzo, kidney and black beans, corn, black olives, dill pickles, celery, onions, peppercinis, eggs, salt, pepper, paprika and mayo. Taste tested great, thank you for giving me the basics.
@Ellen, that sounds amazing! I am gonna have to try that as well as a few other variations.
I thought and remembered this bean salad that was always at our church picknics when I was a kid, looked thru my moms old receipts and couldn’t find it, I called a friend of mine in Indiana and sure enough she knew what the receipt was, long story short I made it and my family loved it! We live in Texas, they never heard of it. Another one I remember is vinegar dumplings, mom used to make them all the time. I can’t find a receipt either, sure would like to make some if someone Some people called them mock apple dumplings, they were sweet and kinda sour at the same time. Delicious delicious delicious
@Steve gieselman, Google vinegar cobbler, you will get several recipes. My mom made this when I was a kid. I loved it. Haven’t tried it yet but inclined to do so now.
Yes I made this Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad, it turned out like what my Mother used to make.
just made this with pinto beans instead of kidney beans. Tastes just as good. Now time to fix breaded tenderloins to go with it eventually!