"Mexican" Bean Salad

Yep, here's another post of something made in the kitchen from the past. I just want to give some ideas, some inspiration, on what can be created in the kitchen. Recently a dear friend of mine was like, "OMG you made candy corn???" Yep, I did. You never know what you can do until you give it a go. And if you can't, at least you can say, "Yep, I tried it, it did not go well." Then you try again because you're a glutton for punishment :) Supposedly that's the fun part of learning, but I've yet to experience joy in my failures, maybe I'm missing something.


Anyway, onto the food, that's why we're here. On today's menu, we have another foray into healthy bean salads (actually what I'm eating for lunch this week). I think this time I'll focus on one food at a time. Writing about three or four items is a bit daunting, to write and to read. Maybe this will work better.

So, the bean salad. This is my "Mexican" bean salad, a term I use rather loosely, and most Americans do too, unfortunately. Actually this is more Tex-Mex, but whatever, I needed to try something. So I took a pound of black beans (dried), soaked them in water (usually so its covered by a couple of inches, or up to the second knuckle on your pointer finger), if you check and need more water, guess what? Add more water! Genius! Anyway, beans were soaked, and then boiled for an hour and a half or so. I usually heat the pot (using the soaking liquid) with the lid on until its boiling, and check it periodically until it's as done as I like. For this, I wanted a sturdier bean, sometimes I like a mooshy bean. Mmmm, mooshy, squish!!

Now the dressing: same 3:1 ish ratio of oil to vinegar, although this time I wanted to try a dressing with lime juice! Where I live limes are so cheap! And, once in awhile, I like to envision someone I'm mad at, and squeeze the lime, pretending it's that person, into a glass of diet cola. Good stress reliever, and a treat to boot! Back to limes. I juiced about six limes, that makes about 1/4 cup of juice, thereabouts. I also happened to run out of olive oil so I substituted some canola oil. Not the best but it worked, the other flavors are so big it would be a sin to use olive oil (see, another sin, wasting good olive oil and you can't even taste it!).

Then, I know this sounds weird, but I wanted to try it: I had a HUGE container of taco seasoning (better to buy the smaller packets, but I'll use what I have), and I measured two tablespoons of seasoning and added it to the dressing. Some hot sauce (I like a bit of heat), and some mustard went in, maybe a tablespoon of each, shook the container, and there's dressing.

Finally, the vegetables: four roma tomatoes (I found removing the gooshy bits made chopping MUCH easier!), two green peppers, chopped, and a one pound bag of frozen corn. For this, since corn season isn't quite here yet, it's a pain to remove from the cob, and in general, frozen produce is picked at its peak, rather than being shipped underripe to get to supermarkets, I thought the flavor would be really nice. It adds a subtle sweetness that I really like.

Now, when the beans are done, drain, toss with vegetables and dressing, let sit to allow flavors to meld.