Last summer we raided our savings to go and visit a great friend of mine who lives in Tennessee, USA. This was a major trip for us, it was our sons first ever time on an airplane and my husbands first time in America. He was a little nervous about the type of food we would be eating, despite my constant reassurances that my friend is a really good cook who knows lots about eating and living healthy. Anyway, once we were there, my friends amazing cooking didn't disappoint and night after night she produced wonderful food that was so tasty. One accompaniment to a meal was a salad/salsa similar to this, and we all thought it was yummy. I've been meaning to recreate it for ages and have finally got round to it and I'm happy to say that it was a real success.
This does take a little effort and timing to prepare if you're planning on using dried beans but you could use a can of beans that are ready to use (always check the instructions on the side of the can.) This easily fed the two of us for dinner tonight but if I was going to do this again for more people it would feed 5-6 people with other salads/sides.
I did have some salmon that I had cooked and tried to make fish cakes, they weren't such a success so if I'm going to recreate these another time, I really need to look at a cookery book first for both inspiration and some much needed help!
Bean, tomato and sweetcorn salsa
40g (dry weight) black beans
160g sweetcorn
3 tomatoes
1 lime
1 tbsp chopped coriander
- If using dried beans, prepare them according to the packet instructions. This meant soaking for 12 hours (or overnight, which saw me in my pyjama's getting these ready!) before cooking in fresh cold water for 45 minutes.
- Allow them to cool, or if using a can, open and drain. Remove the seeds from the tomatoes and chop roughly.
- In a bowl add the black beans, sweetcorn and tomatoes. If using fresh coriander chop this up and add this to the bowl, but I use frozen which is already chopped.
- Zest the lime and then add the juice. Give everything a really good stir and it's ready to serve. This will be happy waiting in a fridge until you need it, if you're trying to prepare ahead.
