Here in Northern California, the drought has meant the price of lettuce is through the roof and the quality is pretty bad. When you do want a salad, you can't afford to mess around and make a mistake. It seems add to odd cooked heirloom beans as filler, but when I'm making a salad, I look in the fridge and some leftover beans are a happy discovery. You can make a bean-centric salad without lettuce or you can toss a few spoonfuls into your lettuce-based salad as part of the supporting cast. Either way, beans in salad are easy to like and if you have the bad luck living with non-Bean Eaters (it happens, sadly!), you can slip a few of these high-protein nuggets in and we doubt anyone would object.