There is a story behind this recipe that is more of a “here is what you start with” recipe.

My friend, we shall call him Fred, and his wife, we will call her Shirley, shared this over conversation. For reasons we won’t get into, their real names can’t be used in the newspaper.

Fred was eating lunch one day, and after a comment from me, told me what was in his lunch (that he could remember). In the conversation, he told me Shirley roasted the beans, except for the kidney beans.

That had me intrigued, as I had not heard of roasting garbanzo beans or any other beans. I wrote down the four beans and, of course, asked him how long to roast them.

That question required him to ask Shirley. Fred came back a few days later with a sticky note folded three times, quite proudly if I may say. He had written the oven temp plus about how many minutes. But I had other questions, like seasonings, dressings, other ingredients, etc. So I called Shirley to sort things out.

This four-bean salad can vary a lot depending on your taste, so taste as you go, like I did. I will tell you what I added, then share what I think I will do next time.

The four beans are as follows:

Garbanzo beans

Lima beans

Kidney or black beans

Green beans

****other vegetables to taste, like cherry tomatoes, green/yellow/red peppers, etc.

Coat the ingredients to be roasted with olive oil and garlic powder to taste; salt if you like. Put parchment paper on a flat baking pan, spread beans and vegetables so that they are not layered, and bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Shirley used Paul Newman’s Balsamic Vinegar dressing to mix with the salad.

MY NOTES: I bought a package of sprouted rice and quinoa blend, made some and added it to the beans. I also had put in the cherry tomatoes on the roasting pan.

BUT here is what I will do differently next time: Not finding the canned lima beans, I bought a package of the ones you have to soak and then cook for an hour to so. I cooked them too long, then drained and transferred them to the bowl of other ingredients. They had too much moisture to roast well.

Same with the green beans. I bought frozen ones and they never shriveled, like Shirley said they would. They should be chewy. She has added onions, I didn’t. She said she has added fresh grated parmesan, which would have made a nice addition. I only had the grated stuff in a jar, which helped a little, but next time, I will use fresh parmesan.

I did use the suggested dressing, but added some Simply Asia seasoning, which has ginger and garlic. Next time I’d like to try Lite Italian Dressing.

It was a very flavorful, healthy salad. There is no right way or wrong way to do this. Fred shared that Shirley has experimented and mastered the art of roasting vegetables, which I will now do more often.

Enjoy!