This is the perfect salad to serve at any backyard barbecue gathering. Smoky, with a hint of lime and the heat of just a little bit of jalapeno pepper, this flavorful dish combines a variety of colorful vegetables and cooked or canned beans. It comes together in minutes with ingredients that are readily available. In fact, you might have everything that you need to make this versatile side dish right now. This salad by Dorie Greenspan, from her wonderful cookbook, Everyday Dorie: the Way I Cook, is published under the title Cowboy Caviar Salad. I hope that Dorie will forgive me for simplifying the name of this recipe slightly.
Southwestern Bean Salad
As a lifetime devotee of canned beans, I used to scoff when I saw an instruction in a recipe to “use cooked beans or canned, but cooked taste better”. Cooking beans? That was a non-starter; who in their right mind had the time to cook beans for a single recipe. And furthermore, did they really taste that different? Well you’ll be happy to know that this indefatigable and intrepid food investigator lets nothing stand between her readers and the truth about food. So… one sunny morning, I decided to cook black-eyed peas, the beans called for in this recipe.
I dutifully soaked 2 cups of beans overnight and observed that they tripled in size. This was already looking promising. I followed Dorie Greenspan’s instructions and after sautéing the onion, celery, carrot and garlic (also known as aromatics) in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 10 minutes, I scooped up the sautéed vegetables in a “Sack-n-Boil food mess saver”. (Dorie Greenspan recommends putting the aromatics in the bottom of a pasta pot and putting the insert on top of them before adding the beans and water.) I added my beans to the pot, dropped in the bagged aromatics and covered everything with water to a depth of 2 inches. I also added a bay leaf, but to be honest, I think that the package of bay leaves has been in my pantry since the fall of the Roman Empire, so I don’t really know what it contributed to this recipe. I boiled the beans on high for 10 minutes and lowered the heat to a low simmer and continued to cook the beans until they were al dente (that means getting soft but not there yet). At that point, I added salt ½ teaspoon at a time every 10 to 15 minutes, taste-testing the beans before adding salt until they tasted just right. I made this recipe twice using different beans and for me, 2 ½ teaspoons of salt was the correct amount.
Adding the salt at this late point in the game and in those small increments seemed a bit strange to me. According to Melissa Clark, food writer, cookbook author and columnist in the New York Times “there’s a myth out regarding beans and salt — specifically, that you should never salt your beans before cooking because the salt keeps them from cooking through.That’s just not true. You can add salt to your bean pot at the beginning of cooking, and your beans will be better seasoned for it.” Clearly there was a difference of opinion about this issue among cooking titans. After cooking for about 45 minutes, the beans were the right texture, soft but not too soft. I removed the pot from the heat and drained off the liquid. Melissa Clark recommends saving the bean cooking liquid and using it in recipes when vegetable stock is called for. What a superb idea!
And now for the moment of truth. I decided to do a side-by-side taste testing between the freshly cooked beans and canned beans. Can you guess the result? The freshly cooked beans were delicious, the canned beans, well, not so much. Does that mean that I’m going to stop using canned beans? No. But I will make an effort to buy the best canned beans that I can find when I do use them in the future. And if you really want to experience a delectable bean taste sensation, cook them yourself.
I’m sure by this point you thought that I forgot we were supposed to be making salad today.
Gather your ingredients and chop the vegetables as directed. I used Roma tomatoes and carefully removed as much of the seeds and pulp as I could so that the salad would not become soggy. Adding corn to the salad was my own spin on this recipe. I toasted the corn to add to the overall smoky flavor of the salad. It’s a great addition if I say so myself. The recipe called for cilantro but I substituted parsley because of my own personal preference. Make the salad dressing as directed. If serving the salad immediately, mix the beans, all of the vegetables and herbs together and toss with the dressing. If you are preparing the salad in advance, add the tomatoes and parsley before serving and dress the salad at that time. This salad goes really well with everything, including tortilla chips, but is an especially delicious accompaniment to anything cooked on a grill.
Southwestern Bean Salad
Smoky, with a hint of lime and the heat of just a little bit of jalapeno pepper, this salad combines a variety of colorful vegetables and cooked or canned beans. This is the perfect accompaniment to any barbecued meal.
Ingredients
- Dressing:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon honey
- Salad
- 2 cups cooked or canned black-eyed peas (you can also substitute the canned bean of your choice)
- 3 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion finely chopped
- 1 orange bell pepper, finely chopped or diced
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped or diced
- 2-3 medium Roma tomatoes, finely chopped or diced, seeds removed
- Fresh parsley or cilantro to taste
- Hot sauce (optional)
- Tortilla chips for serving (optional)
Instructions
For the Dressing: Put the oil, lime zest and juice, cumin, salt, paprika and honey in a jar with a tightly fitting lid and shake to combine. Set the dressing aside.
For the Salad: Toast the corn kernels by placing them in a preheated 12 inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Shake the frying pan back and forth gently as the corn toasts. It will turn brown in spots. That's perfect. Slice the tomatoes in half vertically and remove the seeds with the point of your knife. Chop or dice and set aside. Combine the beans, toasted corn kernels, garlic and chopped vegetables except for the tomatoes and parsley, in a large bowl. If you're serving the salad immediately, add in the tomatoes and parsley. Season with hot sauce if you like, to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to coat. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
This salad keeps well in the fridge for several days. If you do happen to cook your own beans and end up with leftovers, you can freeze the surplus. One cup of raw beans yields 3 cups of cooked beans.
No Comments