Summer is officially here, and warm days call for cool, fresh food. Even better – food that doesn’t require an oven. Enter this incredible southwest black bean and corn salad! Not only is it super easy to make, but it is fresh, chilled, and exploding with flavor. This is a salad that anyone can enjoy, and is an easy way to add protein (and more!) to any meal.
Each ingredient adds a unique flavor and color, but you can switch it up for your own colorful combination. I use roma tomatoes for this recipe since they tend to have more meat and less juice, but you could use others (a big beautiful heirloom variety would be lovely, I think). Also, the frozen corn chills the salad and makes it fresh and crisp, but fresh corn would be yummy too! But if there’s one thing to leave in, it’s the jalapeño! It doesn’t add heat to this recipe, just a really nice flavor. If you do want it to be a little spicy, simply leave in the seeds.
The bottom line, is that this salad won’t last long. Believe me – three of us (ok, three and a half, counting my one-year old) ate almost the entire salad today in one sitting.
So go ahead – mix up a batch and dig in! Tortilla chip, pita chip, fork… You choose your utensil. But be ready for a flavor party in your mouth. 🙂
Let me know what you think in the comments below! And as always, may your day be seasoned with sunshine. 🙂
- 2 cans (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced very fine
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 3 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 3 cups frozen corn
- Mix all ingredients (except frozen corn) together until well incorporated.
- Stir in frozen corn until evenly mixed. You could just mix the corn in at the same as everything else, but I've found that the lemon juice tends to freeze when it hits the corn. Adding the corn last allows everything to get thoroughly combined first.
- Cover, and allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to marinate.
- Stir, and serve chilled with tortilla chips, or as a side for your favorite summer meal!
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