Recipes

Black Bean Salad

Ingredients

The Salad -
2 pounds. black beans
2 pounds. cooked sweet corn, cut from the cob
8 green onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, large, minced
2-3 jalapeno peppers, cleaned, diced
1 green Bell pepper, cleaned, diced
1 ripe avocado, large, pitted, peeled and diced
1 jar (4 oz) pimentos, drained
3 tomatoes, seeded & diced
1C fresh cilantro, chopped
Sea salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste
The Dressing
3 T fresh lime juice
2 T fresh orange juice
2-1/2 tsp lime zest
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Sea salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

Combine all the salad ingredients in a big bowl. Season with the salt & pepper. Whisk the dressing vigorously to incorporate. Add the dressing to the salad and lightly toss to combine everything. Chill until ready to serve. Gently toss again prior to serving.

Prepare this salad at least 4 hours prior to serving to let everything - except the avocado - marry joyfully in the bowl.

You do want to let the avocado bathe in the lime juice of the dressing - better presentation that way, and you can store the avocado pieces in a small container. Then, pour the dressing off the avocado and mix the salad with the dressing, then dress the top of the salad with the avocado pieces at service.

Very pretty dish & the absence of any oil seems to make all the vegetables sparkle in a light citrus glow. You need this salad well chilled, but if you don't bathe the avocados in the dressing first, they will end up looking like grey lumps of pork as the air hits them.