Cilanto Corn Black Bean Salad

My experimental salad recipe of 2023.   09 April 2024
Posted in: recipe

I know the photo doesn’t have the tortilla strips; deal with it.

I promise I haven’t been hacked and turned into a recipe SEO blog: here’s a salad recipe that I designed in 2023. I’m not much of a chef, but this is a big hit at the beach or summer parties. I usually just wing the proportions and it turns out fine – it’s not rocket science. Don’t stress!

Ingredients

• One or two big bundles of cilantro. This is your base green; you want it to approximate the volume of beans & corn (together). Don’t be fooled by parsley!
• Some (4-6) corn tortillas. I like white corn tortillas, but yellow can work too I suppose.
• 4 limes. You may want more if you’re planning on keeping the salad in the fridge for a couple days.
• 2 avocados or more if you can afford it. I’ve left these out before; it was fine I guess.
• A wheel of cotija cheese. You could get it ground, I suppose. Usuing a whole wheel might be overkill, I end up using half to two thirds depending on the volume of cilantro, beans and corn.
• Dry black beans. Canned beans work but it’s not the same without the cumin.
• Greek yogurt. I use Fage, the firmer texture is really superior.
• A big ass red onion.
• 4 to 8 jalapeños. Depends on how spicy you like it.
• Olive oil or some other kind of oil for frying the tortillas.
• A cup of sugar.
• 2 or 3 ears of corn. I’ve used frozen corn and it threw the whole taste off; beware.

Spices

• Cumin.
• Sea salt.
• Chili powder; I like the dark chili powder.

Optional Ingredients

• Radishes, 6 to 12. These look nice in photos.

Tortilla strips

1. Cut the tortillas into strips. They should be about half the length of your pinky & a little wider.
2. Put the tortillas in a pan with enough oil to cover them. I always feel like I’m wasting oil but you want to fry them until they’re super crispy.
3. Fry them on medium high heat for a couple minutes. Some brown & black areas is ideal. You may need to do two batches.
4. Place the tortilla strips in a container or a paper bag. Toss with 1 tablespoon chili powder and one tablespoon sea salt.

Beans

1. Search the internet for how to cook black beans. I usually just presoak them overnight and then throw them on for 90 minutes or so.
2. Throw a generous amount of cumin in. Maybe you don’t like cumin; do something else.

Corn

1. Shuck the corn.
2. Start boiling some water. When it boils, throw the sugar in.
3. Boil for about 5 minutes.
4. Use a knife to cut the kernels off the cob.

Assembly

1. Rough cut the cilantro, throw into bowl.
2. Add the beans and corn.
3. Cut up the jalapeños and add them. Don’t touch your eyes.
4. Add the juice of 4 limes. This will help the salad keep in the fridge for a couple days.
5. Cut up the red onion and add it.
6. Toss a bit.
7. Add the cotija cheese.
8. (Optional) cut up the radishes and throw them in.
9. Toss more.

Serving

1. Cut the avocados length wise into thin slivers.
2. Cut remaining limes into wedges.
3. Let your guests put tortilla strips, avocado, lime juice, yogurt and optional drizzle of olive oil on themselves.