Spicy Black Bean Corn Salad Salsa Recipe

Black bean corn salad recipe that you need to try. Take your salad or salsa dip game to the next level with this zesty and nutritious black bean salsa salad recipe! Bursting with vibrant colors, textures, and a harmonious blend of flavors, this dish is a perfect side-salad to any meal or by its own as a salsa dip with nachos. The star of this salad is the protein-rich black beans, perfectly complemented by sweet corn, jalapeños, tomatoes, onion and a fresh and tangy lime dressing. Full of flavor, high in vitamins and nutrients and low in calories, making it a perfect side-salad for reaching your fitness goals and being an amazing party dip at the same time.

Ingredients for Black Bean Salad/Salsa

• Black beans – Black beans are packed with essential nutrients like protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them a great filling component in a salad. For this recipe, you can go with a regular can of unseasoned and unsalted black beans in water. You should always remember to rinse the beans clean under running cold water before using them in the salad.
• Jalapeño Peppers – The choice of peppers used in the salad is completely up to you as it just comes down to how spicy you would like the dip or salad to be. Jalapeño Peppers are in the low/medium heat range which gives a small kick but at the same time doesn’t consume the taste of other ingredients, making it a good fit for this recipe.
  If you would like no heat at all, replace it with Bell Peppers. If you would like a bit less heat, go with Poblano, Anaheim or Pepperoncini Peppers. If you would like more heat, then Hungarian Pepper works great and if you want to have a strong kick of heat, you can go with Serrano Peppers. Read more about those spicy peppers in here. Anything up from Serrano is a bit too much for this recipe in my opinion.
• Sweet Corn – Sweet corn adds a vibrant yellow color to the salad and is a great source of vitamin C, full of fibers and antioxidants. If you can find some fresh on a cob then go for it but it’s completely fine using canned sweet corn in this recipe as well.
• Red Onion – A red onion adds a delightful crunch together with a zesty and earthy note to the black bean salsa salad. A regular white onion works fine as well, but a red onion gives the salad a bit more color and is a bit less pungent in flavor.
• Tomatoes – Tomatoes in a black bean salad gives it a juicy, tangy sweetness that balances the heat of the jalapeño peppers and complements the other fresh ingredients and herbs.
• Fresh lime juice – Freshly squeezed lime juice is exactly what you need as a dressing to give the black bean salsa salad the extra sour kick of freshness that it needs.
• Fresh cilantro/coriander – fresh, citrusy, and slightly peppery flavored herb with a vibrant color addition to the salad.
• Ground cumin and salt – ground cumin gives the dressing a true earthy Mexican flavor that compliments all the ingredients. And finally a tablespoon of salt in the dressing helps to balance and enhance all the flavors while helping to preserve the salad for a longer period.

How to Make Black Bean Corn Salsa Salad

1. Chop and dice the peppers, tomatoes, corn, onion and cilantro and place them in a mixing bowl
   • Remove the seeds and cut or chop the jalapeño peppers into small cubes.
   • Cut the tomatoes into 4 pieces, remove the watery and seedy part from the tomato pieces and dice the pieces into as small or big cubes as you prefer.
   • Peel the onion and finely chop it into small pieces. .
   • Remove the stems from the fresh cilantro leaves and give them a fine chop.
   • If you’re using canned sweet corn, then just drain the water and place the corn in a mixing bowl. If you have corn on a cob, place the corn on a cutting table standing up straight and slice down with a knife carefully removing the corn from the cob on each side of it.
2. Rinse the canned black beans under running cold water and add them to the mixing bowl – Washing canned beans is important as it removes the excess starch, sugars, preservatives and sodium from them and improves its texture for the salad.
3. Prepare the dressing and pour it on top of the salad – Squeeze the juice of 2 fresh limes into a separate bowl, add a tablespoon of ground cumin and salt to it and mix it together properly. Once the dressing is mixed evenly, pour it on top of the salad in the mixing bowl.
4. Carefully mix all the ingredients together in the mixing bowl – Mix all the ingredients with the dressing but be careful not to be too rough as it can break the textures and make the salsa salad a bit too watery. If it happens that there’s too much excess water in the bottom of the salad, you can just carefully pour some of it out from the bowl.
5. Serve as a dip for nachos or as a side-salad for any of your favorite dishes.

Black Bean and Corn Salad Recipe

Spice up your nachos with this super easy and fresh black bean salsa dip recipe or serve it as a healthy side-salad to any of your favorite dishes. Mexican food you must try.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 1 regular can / 240g of black beans
• ⅔ cups / 100g fresh or canned sweet corn
• 5 jalapeño peppers (~100g)
• 1 medium red onion
• 2 large tomatoes
• 4 tbsp of fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp of ground cumin
• 1 tbsp of salt
• Handful / 0.5 cup of fresh cilantro leaves

Nutritional value per recipe (1 serving)

104 calories / 5.9 g protein / 24 g carbs / 0.8 g fat / 7 g fiber / 5.75 g sugar

Nutritional value per recipe (4 servings)

415 calories / 23.6g protein / 96g carbs / 3.4g fats / 28.1g dietary fiber / 23g sugar