Sunday Salad Samplers #2 – Black Bean Salad

Did I mention that the Slow Travel Group is back in the kitchen? This time, in honor of the warm weather, and the overwhelming desire to not heat up our kitchens, we’re making salads (yes, while last summer’s ice cream recipes were great fun, some of us are still working them off).

Anyway, I’m way behind in my salad making – yes, even salads an take time to prep. So now I need to catch up. I did make this one relatively close to the original date (05/03/09), but just haven’t gotten around to posting it until now.

Black Bean Salad

Sorry about the picture quality, you think by now I’d make sure my camera battery is charged instead of relying on my phone’s camera…

Here’s the original recipe, as posted by Tourmama.

Black Bean Salad

2 cups dried black beans ( cheated and used the cans – also note, I halved this recipe and it still made an awful lot).
cover dry beans with 2 inches of water, and allow to soak overnight; drain soaking liquid, cover with fresh water, bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook (1 – 2 hrs) until beans are tender. Do NOT salt the water – it can cause the beans to toughen. Rinse and drain beans well, to get rid of all the black/grey liquid, which can discolor the salad.

Note – if you prefer, you can substitute 4 – 16. oz cans of cooked black beans; just rinse and drain thoroughly as above (this is what I did – so basically, 2 cans).

While beans are cooking, also cook
1 – ½ to 2 cups long grain rice, brown rice, or an “8 grain” mixture of rice/grain that you can get from some stores, following package directions..

Cool beans and grain (I actually made the rice the day before).

Dice some combination of the following:– try to dice all vegetables uniformly to a size similar to the size of the black beans for best appearance:

Red onions (maybe 1 whole one)

Garlic, minced or crushed (up to 12 cloves more or less)

Bell peppers. I like to use 3 colors to brighten up the salad.

Jalapeno – 2 or 3 depending on heat you like, minced

Corn, canned, frozen or fresh as you like maybe a cup or so (suggestion – use the roasted corn from Trader Joe’s for an extra layer of flavor).

Optional addition –green beans or zucchini

Toss all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.

Then add Cumin-lime vinaigrette:
Olive oil (about 1/2 cup)
lime zest
lime juice (about 1/4 cup)
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon or so of mustard
garlic (maybe 6 or so cloves)
cumin and or chili powder (1-2 teaspoons to taste)
adjust these ingredients as needed to balance the flavors.
Optional: stir in fresh chopped cilantro.
Garnish with cilantro.

Okay – so you should know – I didn’t use the cumin lime vinaigrette. Instead, I dressed the salad like I’ve done with an old Weight Watcher recipe for Southwest Corn and Black Bean Salad, I just dressed the salad with a combination of lime juice and cumin, which worked well, and cut out all the fat.

This was good and would be great to make for a barbecue as a side when you have a lot of people, or even vegetarians, as I believe the combination of rice, beans, and corn to be a good one for them nutritionally.