Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Salsa

In honor of the Eat Like Us for a Day Challenge on May 14, I decided to find an actual recipe that I use that could fit with this challenge.

Well, I spent a long while at my cookbooks before realizing that I basically eat wheat, soy, and dairy at every single meal.

Yikes!

I was looking in the fridge and realized I needed to use a few ingredients and a light bulb went off in my head. YES!

Black bean salsa. I love to make this, because it’s easy, can be made in big huge batches, and people are always asking me for the recipe (which is funny, because, 'recipe? for salsa?’ I barely pay attention to measurements for this).

The girl can’t keep her hands out of it, as long as I don’t put too much hot pepper in it. This time I left it out entirely and when I turned around to get my camera, she was going at it with the spoon. Ha. And I thought salsa was just a good excuse to eat chips.

I usually use my food processor for the first half of the salsa, because I’m lazy and it’s way easier than mincing onions. Just make sure you PULSE properly instead of spinning it around and around, otherwise you’ll have tomato puree rather than salsa. But if you’re not lazy, like me, just mince everything. I let Amaya cut up the other half of the cucumber for fun (with a butter knife) to keep her busy. I also recommend putting in a papaya or mango or even pineapple if you have it around. I love the sweetness added to it. Then a minced jalapeno in there is counterbalanced so well.

Black Bean Salsa

• 1/2 red onion (or white/yellow is fine)
• 3 medium tomatoes (about 2 C)
• 1 T cilantro or to taste
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cucumber (Japanese is best—thin and less seedy)
• 1 C black beans from a can
• 1/2 C frozen corn
• 1/4 t to 1/2 t salt (to taste)
• juice from half a lime
• 1/4 t sugar
• 1/4 t apple cider vinegar
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 avocado

1. Cut the onion into large chunks and throw them into the food processor. Pulse the onion until the bits are pretty small. Maybe about 10 half second pulses.
2. Core and chunk up the tomatoes and add them to the processor as well. Put in the garlic and cilantro. Pulse about 6-8 times until chunky.
3. Remove the mixture and put into a bowl. Cut the cucumber into small cubes and add to the mix. Rinse and drain the beans and heat up the corn to defrost. Put in all the ingredients except the avocado and stir lightly to mix them up. Taste and add more seasoning as needed.
4. Dice up the avocado and add to the salsa. Toss lightly so as not to squish the avocado.
5. Serve with corn tortilla chips (make sure they’re not cooked with soybean oil) for the challenge! Serves 6-8 people as an appetizer.

Follow the link to the challenge! Remember to join us next Friday, May 14th.