Black Bean and Corn Salad

Whew!  I am back from the depths of cold hellishness.  (Not cold temperatures, cold sicknesses.)  I have to say this might be the most grateful I've ever been to be done being sick.  On to other things now!

Since it's nice and summery and HOT over here now, I am raiding my recipe stash for cold dishes to prepare for meals.  I have a much better stash of nutritious, vegan hot soups, than I do cold dishes.  So I'm always looking for a new cool, summery dish to try.  (Hint hint, time to share your healthy summer time recipes with me.)

I remembered my fabulous Black Bean and Corn Salad recipe that is a frequent dinner guest at our house in the summer, made it the other night (actually hubby made it), and knew I should post the recipe.  The recipe is originally found here courtesy of Allrecipes.com.  I have, of course, made a few alterations to it to make it a bit healthier and for our tastes, so that's what I'll post below.

I really thought I had a better picture than this, but it will have to do.  See all the rainbow colors?!

Black Bean and Corn Salad

Dressing:
1/2c freshly squeezed lime juice (bottled works, but fresh makes ALL the difference in the world)
1 medium clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1/8tsp cayenne pepper

Salad:
2 cans (or 3 cups) of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2c frozen corn kernels
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/2c cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, chopped

Combine all salad ingredients in a big bowl.  Whisk together dressing ingredients in separate bowl, pour over salad and mix well.

This salad is SUPER delish and refreshing.  Using it as dip on corn chips is even MORE amazing, but if you don't want the extra calories, or simply want to stay on the healthy side, avoid the chips and just eat a big bowl of salad.  The salad is fantastic by itself, but eat it with a chip and you might not want to go back to plain salad.  Consider yourself warned.

The alterations I made were cutting out the oil in the dressing (you don't miss it or the extra calories!), switching out a red pepper for an orange one (cause I'm so nerdy I wanted to see as many rainbow colors as possible - red tomato, orange pepper, yellow corn, green cilantro and onions, black beans that almost look purplish), and cutting back on the onions (since 6 green onions were too much for me).  Also, while avocado is so tasty in this, if you don't have avocados near you or can't find any good ones that day, don't stress.  Just make the salad without.  I have had to do that on occasion before, and while I miss the avocados, the salad is still yummy!

This salad really is killer good.  Enjoy!