southern comfort

Photo © Brian Sorg

After getting a tease of spring in New Orleans and looking to make something out of what we had (while also needing a detox after all that southern food), we went for our go-to summer salad. While best in summer, when the ingredients are found at the market, we made do w/frozen corn & threw in a zucchini that was leftover from veggie patties. So, while this is certainly the opposite of cooking seasonally, it's definitely a comfort food of ours! Also, it's as easy as chopping and combining, so that's an added bonus.

Southwestern Confetti Salad
1 cup cooked black beans (soak 1/2 cup overnight, boil ~2 hrs/drain, or 1 can black beans)
1 - 2 sm zucchinis, diced
1 shallot, minced
1 cup thawed frozen corn
1 - 2 red/green/yellow pepper, diced
2 jalapenos, seeded, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
3 -4 limes, zested & juiced
1 tsp cayenne (more if you prefer spice)
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and allow to sit at least an hour for ingredients to marry. An option for added protein is to throw in some quinoa, but brian's feeling on quinoa is 'not my favorite' (while my feeling is 'it's my favorite'), but relationships are about compromise, right? I say this as a person who is working on loosening the control and bringing in more of that compromise...I'd say it's a work in progress and I'm not sure what Brian would say. Fortunately he's not around to poll on the matter so I say progress is happening :)