Southwest Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Salsa with bell pepper. Because everything tastes better with a little southwestern flair.
Story of my life: all the ingredients are laid out on the counter for cooking up a complete meal involving some form of protein, lots of vegetation, and a mystical carbohydrate source that by no stretch of the imagination will affect my hips or the comfortability of my jeans after The Feeding, and yet the whole meal compilation process comes to an abrupt halt.
For no reason other than the salsa. Because once made, the salsa becomes the meal. And the meal becomes the salsa. All of a sudden, The Feeding is reduced to a condiment. Why? Due to…
1.) The ease with which salsa goes into your mouth via spoon or chip.
2.) Your violent nature when ravenous. Instead of pistol whipping an innocent bystander, you choose salsa before anyone gets hurt. This is the definition of emotional intelligence.
3.) The fact that hunger-induced tunnel vision happens to pick up corn salsa with the clarity of the Hubble Space Telescope. Meaning all you see is the salsa.
4.) The security of there always being more. Provided you run a comb through your hair, change your shirt, which smells like a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, and go to the store to re-gather all of the ingredients. There will be more, and you needed to get out of the house anyway.
5.) It’s real good.
This is what I would like to refer to as, “eating salsa.” Meaning you should just eat it. Sure, you can put it on a chip for a festive snack, or stick it in all of your tacos, burritos, scrambled eggs, and salads, but why would you do that when you can…just. eat it? This salsa is your dinner. And that is okay.
Brief aside: I’ll be eating my words tomorrow when I show you a recipe involving this salsa. End aside.
What’s not to love about a pile of corn, beans, bell pepper, onion, jalapeño, and avocado all snappy and bright in your bowl? All of these ingredients combined with some fresh lime juice and just the slightest bit of cilantro makes for a zesty spunky salsa, but the real clincher is the ground cumin. Cumin sets the salsa apart from all the other salsas. Hmm…what’s that flavor I’m picking up? It’s the cumin. It makes mountains out of mole hills.
Oh here you go, I made you dinner!
Southwest Black Bean and Corn Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 (14-oz) can black beans drained and rinsed
- 2 ears corn cooked and kernels removed (or 1 14-oz can corn kernels, drained and rinsed)
- ½ large red bell pepper chopped
- ½ cup white onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 jalapeño seeded and finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro finely chopped
- ¼ tsp kosher salt to taste
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 2 limes juiced
- 1 ripe but firm avocado peeled and diced
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine the first eight ingredients.
- Toss everything together with the lime juice. Carefully fold in the diced avocado.
- Keep salsa refrigerated until ready to use.
Yes yes yes. I’ll take a large bowl, please. And cumin? One of my favorites to use. We’ll have this for lunch after our pancake breakfast.
Haha! So much food, so little time. 😉 We can bake sweet potato chips to use as our docking station for the salsa! Brilliance.
Chunky salsas are definitely my favorite. To avoid scrutinizing glances, I usually add a bit of rice or farro and call it a “salad.” But we all know it’s really salsa at heart!
Genius! From here on out, I’ll add a good whole grain to add some balance and whamo: no need to have to explain that I’m eating salsa for dinner…again. 😉
This is the prime example why I cannot order salsa and chips as an app. I eat so much I do not want a meal afterwards. But sometimes, if you go out with the intention of just eating a crap ton of chips and salsa it is totally ok because that was your plan from the start. I could eat this with a spoon… no need for chips!
My sentiments exactly! I could easily fill up on salsa. Guacamole is always nice, too. There’s just something about all the salsa-y flavors coming together into a big mouth explosion that really makes for an excellent meal 😉
I am a total salsa=dinner person, too. Especially the pineapple salsa from the fresh section of Whole Foods. That stuff is addictive. This looks really good, and I love the addition of beans!
mmmm…pineapple salsa is always a winner, too! Glad you could get a little cray cray all up in some salsa, too. 🙂
I could live off of food like this, and most days I do! I pretty much put cumin into everything I make, even when it isn’t a southwestern dish. If I didn’t have a husband at home who claims that he needs something more substantial for dinners, I would probably eat this corn salsa every night of the week! Also, I feel better knowing that I’m not the only one who refers to an eating event as The Feeding 🙂
YES! I say we stir up some margaritas and go to town on this salsa! Can we watch The Voice while we’re at it? Let’s do this!
You made me laugh. Why? Because it was sooooooooooo true. However you last reason—it’s good is the REAL driver. I pinned it, because you sold me—–and I don’t have anything like this sitting in my box of tricks.
I freaking love salsa. Like LOVE LOVE it. I eat it on beans for breakfast.
I wuuuuuv you! 🙂
This does look real good. Sold!
this is one of my favourite foods. Black beans are always a delicious and healthy choice for lunch for me 😉
So basically, I love everything about this bowl.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who makes meals out of condiments! But mostly just salsa. This version is so easy on the eyes and the tastebuds.
Oh hell yes on condiment-based dinners! You and me, we could do some real damage to a batch of salsa. whoooooa nelly!
This looks delicious – is there calorie/nutrition info available? Thank you
Hi Paula! I added the nutrition facts based on 4 servings. If you’d like the nutrition facts for fewer or more servings, let me know. You can also input the recipe into MyFitnessPal.com 🙂