Black Bean Salad

This tasty and addictive black bean salad is fresh, colorful, and endlessly adaptable. It makes a great dip, salad, side dish, or taco topper.

I recently made pork tacos for dinner and decided to make an easy recipe for cowboy caviar to pair with our tacos. I had to adapt the plan because my store was out of black-eyed peas, so I used black beans with corn, tomatoes, avocado, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño, and tossed in a tangy homemade vinaigrette. The flavors meld really well together. This black bean salad was simple to throw together, was a big hit with my family, and tasted terrific with our tacos.

Black Bean Salad

Vinaigrette:

• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Black Bean Salad:

• 1 (15-oz) can of black beans, drained & rinsed
• ¾ cup frozen corn
• 1 large (or 2 small) Roma tomatoes, seeded & diced, to taste
• 1 avocado, peeled & diced
• ¼ red bell pepper, diced
• ¼ red onion, diced  **If the onion flavor is too strong, soak in ice water for 10 minutes before mixing into the salad.
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro
• ½ jalapeño, diced
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Serving:

• Tortilla chips

How to Make a Black Bean Salad:

Prepare the vinaigrette by combining the oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, garlic, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste in a small glass jar. Seal with a lid and shake well; set aside to let flavors mingle.

Assemble the salad by mixing the black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño in a bowl.

Drizzle some well-whisked vinaigrette on the salad, to taste; toss to coat evenly. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, if needed.

Cover and chill until serving time.