This Instant Pot Mexican Three Bean Salad recipe is quick and easy and loaded with the goodness of protein-rich beans, veggies and packed with flavors. It's perfect for the warmer days when you want to make-ahead something to serve a crowd at a party, picnic or BBQ. Vegan. Gluten-Free. 0 Freestyle Weight Watchers Points.

Friends, it's exactly 6 weeks today that we came to Germany. We can barely wait to get out of our service apartment and move into our house. So glad I carried my Instant Pot with us in our air allowance or else I would have gone crazy. My kitchen literally has my Instant Pot, my air frier and a couple pans, those are my cooking buddies. So for 6 weeks now I have been using my Instant Pot to make all kinds of curries, pastas, spaghetti, puddings, jam, rice, beans and now even salads :)

Salads in Instant Pot

Typically you won't turn on the Instant Pot to make salads right, but the Instant Pot is great to make base ingredients like legumes, grains, beans or roots for a salad. The pressure cook function literally shines for salad. Whether it's last minute or your need to meal prep and make a batch ahead of time, the Instant Pot does the job so much quicker. There are so many benefits of cooking your own beans, grains and legumes at home, rather than buying canned beans. To read more about why I don't buy canned beans anymore, click here.

The weather is finally getting better here in Bavaria. Sunny days with the usual rainfall :) Time to enjoy the sun outside and less time in the kitchen. We have a lot going on this month with our upcoming move in two phases, our trip to Netherlands in between the move. I also have to make sure I don't leave you stranded so I am prepping up a few recipes before it gets crazy. Obviously with so much going on I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and keep things simple. So you will be seeing a lot more salad recipes, but first the Instant Pot Mexican Three Bean Salad.

Instant Pot Mexican Three Bean Salad

Name: Instant Pot Mexican Three Bean Salad
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1 cup black beans; 1 cup red kidney beans; 1 cup chickpeas; 1/2 cup onions, chopped; 1 cup tomatoes, chopped; 1 cup corn kernels, cooked; 1 teaspoon cumin powder; 2 tablespoon adobo powder; 2-3 garlic cloves, minced; 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice; 1 avocado, diced; 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

This three bean salad recipe is easy peasy. A simple bean salad with a Mexican flair. No fancy ingredients. It's light yet filling. Loaded with the goodness of colorful vegetables and protein-rich beans, packed with Southwest flavors this salad is bound to be a hit. It's vegan and gluten-free. 0 weight watchers free-style points if you do not add the avocado.

I have used easily available ingredients from my pantry like, black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, olive oil. I have used fresh onions, tomatoes, corn, avocado jalapenos and cilantro. For the seasoning, I have used garlic, cumin, abodo powder, and some fresh lime juice.

To cook the dry beans I followed the master recipe, here. The rest is literally mixing the ingredients together.

Dry Beans versus Canned Beans

Ofcourse you can used canned beans for this salad, however once you start cooking dry beans in your Instant Pot you will realize how the texture and taste is so much different and more delicious compared to the canned beans. Plus it's so much more economical. You can read all about why I am never buying canned beans ever again in the master post here.

What Beans can I use for this Three Bean Salad

Honestly you can use whatever beans you have at home to make this salad. Ofcourse the cooking times will vary depending on the beans and whether they are soaked or not.

Should I soak the beans or not?

I personally always prefer to soak the beans before cooking them as they aid digestion. However sometimes when I don't have the time to prep and I am making something last minute, yes I am guilty of directly pressure cooking the dry beans. Again I have shared more information on this topic in the master post here.

Do I need to cook the beans separately or can I cook the beans in one batch?

All in one batch

I have tried cooking beans together as well as separately. When I cooked the three beans in one batch, the lighter colored beans like chickpeas caught the color of the darker beans like kidney beans and black beans. I took a picture the time I cooked them all together, you can see it below. If you are like me and it doesn't bother you, by all means you can cook them all in one batch as it's a much more efficient process and less time consuming. The color difference was marginal. Ofcourse chickpeas take the longest to cook, so you'd cook the whole batch as per the cooking time of chickpeas. If you are worried about black beans and kidney beans getting mushy, nope it wasn't the case. They were definitely a little softer but still good to go in a salad.

Each individually

On the other hand if you are preparing this salad for a crowd, or have the time to meal prep then pressure cooking them separately is a great idea as that ways the chickpeas will not absorb the color of the darker beans.

Darker beans together

You could also cook the darker color beans together and lighter color beans together, a more efficient solution compared to cooking the beans individually. Again you will set the timer according to the beans that take the longest to cook.

Three Bean Salad Variations

Once you have a batch of beans ready to be tossed into your salad there are so many variations you could do.

Italian herbs
Mediterranean dressing
Adding different types of cheeses
Adding greens or roots to it
Dressing it with a pesto

How to cook dry beans in Instant Pot?

Follow the master recipe here.

What else can you make with these three beans, try this Vegan Three Bean Chili in your Instant Pot. When you try this recipe don't forget to take a picture and send it our way. Tag us on Facebook or Instagram @dbellyrulesdmind.