Black bean salad

Mexican-style Salad with black beans

Inspiration for this salad is my love for Mexican and Tex-Mex food. When I moved to India from the US, one of the things I missed the most was the luxury to have access to lip-smacking Mexican cuisine. This salad and especially the dressing was a makeshift solution I had to come up with when I had no easy access to some ingredients that you would use in Mexican cooking for example, canned chipotle in adobo. But this version works so well, that now that I am back in the Us, I still use the same recipe! necessity is the mother of invention!

Two of my most favorite Mexican restaurants/ food joints in the US are Jose Tejas (2 locations in NJ) and Mila’s mini market in Plymouth Indiana. The latter is a very small family-run grocery store cum eatery and they make the BEST tacos, guacamole and horchatas. In my mind, they are both 2 Michelin star because they are totally worth the detour if you are passing NJ or IN!

Now to the recipe, you will need:

• mixed greens/ lettuce
• 1/2 a cup of black beans – canned or soaked overnight and pressure cooked
• 4-5 jalapeno slices – optional
• half a red onion chopped
• 1/2 a tomato chopped OR 6-8 cherry tomatoes – halved
• 2 tbsp greek yogurt
• 1 tsp hot sauce of your choice – i use tabasco chipotle
• a pinch each of onion powder, garlic powder and smoked paprika
• salt, pepper and a little sugar.
• Shredded cheddar cheese – optional
• tortilla chip pieces

Black bean salad:
1. Layer a bowl with some greens – I have used red and green romaine
2. Top with some chopped red onion and some diced tomato
3. Add about half a cup of cooked/canned black beans. You can also add some cheddar cheese, to make this salad extra delicious
4. Lastly, top with some sliced jalapeños – optional

5. For the chipotle ranch dressing – whisk together 1 tbsp Greek yogurt, a dab of onion powder and garlic powder, salt, smoked paprika and a tsp of hot sauce – I used Tabasco chipotle sauce. I like my ranch a little sweet, so I added some sugar to the dressing as well – optional

6. Drizzle the ranch on the salad and serve
7. Top with some tortilla chip pieces.

• You can use any mixed greens
• You can add more vegetables/ beans – avocados, red beans, pinto beans, bell peppers instead of jalapeños, etc.
• Aside from the yogurt in the dressing it is a vegan salad. You can easily substitute it with a plant based alternative such as coconut cream to make this a vegan salad
• Using a smoked/ chipotle hot sauce in the dressing will make it taste better. You can make a decent dressing with just adding more smoked paprika and no hot sauce at all as well!

To read about the art of creating salads, the basic pyramid of salads and other interesting salad recipes, please read my other post.