Cumin and Lime Black Bean Salad

For the vegetarians in our home, bean salads are a delicious summertime alternative to grilled meat. At Copywriters’ Kitchen, Cumin and Lime Black Bean Salad is a dinner and picnic staple.

This salad’s mealy black beans—tossed with corn, cumin, lime juice, scallions and fresh cilantro—make a satisfying and nutritious meal when served with Corn Dodgers or other whole grain bread.

Cumin and Lime Black Bean Salad is infinitely adaptable. Feel free to add your favorite seasonal ingredients, such as:

• Ripe tomato, seeded and cubed
• Cucumber, peeled, seeded and cubed
• Sweet onion, chopped fine
• Yellow or green pepper, diced
• Jalapeno pepper, minced
• jícama, peeled and cubed, about 1/2 cup

Can the canned beans: Save money and flavor when you cook your own

Home-cooked beans taste fresher and fuller than canned varieties. But as importantly, home-cooked beans have better “mouth feel”—as we food industry copywriters call it—than canned versions.

While you can get away with canned beans in soups, casseroles and pureed dips, canned beans’ mushiness is hard to miss in cold salads.

If you have a crockpot, cooking beans takes exactly one minute, see my directions below, and saves you money. Dry beans cost 3-4 times less than canned.

Cumin and Lime Black Bean Salad
4 cups cooked black beans
6 scallions, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups corn
1 red pepper, diced
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon Demerara or other sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Prepare beans. Rinse and pick over one pound of black beans. Dump into crockpot, cover with at least 2” of water and add a teaspoon of salt. Cover crockpot, turn to appropriate setting and go read a book—or go to work, run errands, etc. Several hours later, when beans are cooked, drain four cups for salad. Spoon remaining beans and cooking liquid into 2-cup containers and freeze for future use. I’m cooking pinto beans in the photos below, but it’s the same process for black beans.






2. Dice red pepper. Dice it small, about 1/4″ or the same size as the beans and corn, see photos below.







3. In a large bowl mix black beans and all remaining ingredients. If salad is warm, cool to room temperature or chill in refridgerator before serving.





Serves 6-8.