March 3rd: Corn and Black Bean Salad

I already have an amazing corn and black bean salad recipe, courtesy of Kelly, courtesy of her fitness instructor, courtesy of Women’s Health magazine. Here's my version:


Black Bean Salad
3 cups frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato vinaigrette
1 can (19 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 oz mozzarella, diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
2 avocados, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add corn and pan-roast, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.


In a large bowl, combine corn with remaining ingredients and toss together. Chill until ready to serve.


Makes 4-8 servings 


However, that salad makes a big bowl (perfect for a potluck). This week, I wanted a simple corn and black bean salad that I could take for lunch, and save myself the $5 I spend on corn and black bean salad at Green Rebel. Every time I eat one, I think, this can’t be that hard to make. It’s not, but it is a little time intensive; however, it's not too bad if you spread it over a couple of days, as I did. The genesis of the recipe came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, but I altered it slightly.

I started Tuesday night with 1 cup dried black beans. Boiled in an open pot for 2 minutes, covered and left to sit off heat for 2 hours, salted and then gentled simmered, partially covered until done, checking for doneness every 15 minutes (it took 30-45 in total). Once done, I measured out 1 ½ cups cooked beans for this recipe, then refrigerated the rest, in its own soaking water, for another purpose, yet to be determined. From there, on Wednesday night I made the salad:

Corn and Black Bean Salad

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

2 cups frozen corn, thawed (I left them sitting on the counter top for a couple of hours while I made supper, ate, and put O to bed)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1-4 garlic cloves, to taste, chopped

1 ½ cups cooked and cooled black beans

1 tomato, chopped (optional)

1-4 tsps minced jalapeno, to taste

2 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup finely chopped cilantro

1 avocado, diced

Heat oil in a large skillet over med-hi heat. Pan fry the corn, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, until it starts to get charred and crunchy to taste, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and stir for 1 more minute. Remove all to a large bowl.

To the bowl, add the beans, tomato, jalapeno and lime juice. Mix all and adjust seasoning to taste. I found I wanted more lime juice, 1 tbsp of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Gently stir in cilantro and, if serving immediately, avocado. Serve warm or at room temperature. If you do refrigerate it, try to allow time for it to come back to room temperature before eating.

Serves 1-4, depending on what else you might have on the go.

On Thursday, when I ate the salad for lunch, I diced up the avocado and stirred it in at the last minute. So yes, I ate this whole thing in one sitting, which I didn’t think would happen, but it was pretty good.

For future versions, I am thinking of adding diced sweet pepper and red or green onion. Of course, the more I add, the less likely I am to be able to eat it all in one go. Hm.

And, so sorry, but I didn't even think to take a picture. How about a picture of my beautiful kid playing with dried beans instead? These are old ones, from about a year ago: