Cannellini Bean Salad

1 can (14 oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1-2 T jarred olive tapenade
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Put lemon juice, sugar and olive oil in a small jar with a lid and shake (or whisk together in a bowl). Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. This is best when it can sit at room temp for 30 minutes so the flavors meld.

Adapted from this recipe. Nice simple refreshing salad. The tapenade gives it a nice salty kick. It's a great side for lunch or you could add another protein for a whole meal. I made this for lunch as a side with smoked salmon and cream cheese on crackers. I'll probably throw the smoked salmon in it tomorrow for lunch to take to work.

Black Bean, Corn, Tomato and Quinoa Salad

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
2 ears of corn (leave husks on)
1 cup black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 green bell pepper (finely diced)
1 small onion (finely diced)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1-2 T olive oil
1-2 T white wine vinegar
1/2 lime
1 whole garlic clove
chili powder
cayenne pepper powder
salt and pepper

Salad:

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse corn with the husks on. Place directly on middle rack in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool, husk and cut kernels from the cob into a medium bowl.

While the corn is cooking, rinse and drain the quinoa in cold water a few times. Bring 1 cup of water to boil and add the quinoa. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done.

Add to the corn the cooked quinoa, black benas, cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper, onion and cilantro.


Dressing:

In a small bowl use a garlic press to mash the garlic, or mince it. Add the olive oil, vinegar, lime salt and pepper, chili powder and cayanne pepper (a little goes a long way). Wisk together. I usually use a jar with a lid and then just shake it. Adjust spices for taste.

Add the dressing to the salad and stir to combine.

This is best when made ahead and chilled for an hour or so. It is also great the next day as leftovers. The dressing has a great flavor and the key to this dish is using fresh corn (although it won’t stop me from using frozen in the winter). I served this last night with cold leftover chicken and it was delicious! This is a new hit! Shout out to Kevin at Closet Cooking for this one I've been using his site more and more. I'm gonna have to say it's one of my favorites!

Black Bean Cakes with Sweet Corn Vinaigrette over greens

Black Bean Cakes:

1 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
1 eggs, beaten lightly
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 small jalepeno, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Put black beans into a large bowl.

In a medium frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Cook scallions for 2 minutes, add garlic, jalepeno, and cumin; cook for 30 seconds until fragrent; remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.

Pour the hot mixture over the black beans. Mash the beans with a potato masher. The beans should be a mixture of completely mashed beans with a couple whole and some half whole beans. Stir in the egg.

Slowly add bread crumbs until the gooeyness of the beans and eggs mixture dries up. Don't add too much. Leave the mix somewhat sticky.

Heat the oil in a skillet. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of the mixture and place it into the skillet. You can fry 2-3 of these at a time without much of a problem. Let cook on the one side until the bottom is showing some signs of browning and the patty holds together. Flip carefully and cook the other side until it is similarly done.

Set aside in a warm oven while you finish the rest of the cakes and prepare the sauce.


Sweet Corn Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup sweet corn
2 T white wine vinegar
1/4 (approx) olive oil
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, blend the corn until smoothish. Add vinegar, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Blend a few seconds more, scraping the sides down. While the food processor is blending, slowly add olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified and a nice texture.

Serve black bean cakes over fresh salad greens and top with vinaigrette.

Serves 2-3.

The sweet corn vinaigrette is perfect with black bean cakes. This is a nice, light supper that is satisfying but not to filling.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1 onion slice
2 t Vinegar
4 T Olive Oil
1 pinch Fresh or dried parsley
Salt and Pepper

In a bowl whisk together olive oil, vineagar, parsley, salt and pepper.

Chop the tomatoes in half. Peel the cucumber, slice in half and remove the seeds. Chop. Dice the onion.

Mix together and serve.

Serves 2.
























Thank you, Warren, for the delicious Olive Oil! It made this salad. So the key here is good olive oil. In this case, I used Columena. I didn't have a lemon nor did I add any sugar and I found that I didn't need it. If you have a standard olive oil, I'd suggest adding a little more zing to this salad. It's a refreshing salad for a hot day.