Bean salad for president!
Riffable assemblages of lovable legumes will be this summer's heroes.
Happy Friday, nervous cook!
Let’s all take some nice deep breaths, and try to stay cool.
Bean salad: That’s what can save us.
It’s gonna be a long, hot, nervous-making summer, and we need a stylish, flexible staple that can represent. Bean salad! It’s young (I’m told it’s trending on TikTok); it’s democratic (everyone can afford beans); it’s healthy, vibrant and appealing. Best of all, it knows how to think on its feet and express itself passionately and convincingly.
In olden times, there was classic three-bean salad — a good idea (ish), but these days, it lacks energy and verve and I’m just not sure it’s up to the job.
Now that beans are glamorous, spinning on the idea that legumes should star in a cold or room-temp salad makes so much sense. What’s nice is you can feature fabulous heirlooms and show maximum flair, or keep it super simple, and open a can or two. Include something fresh, something crunchy, give the dressing a happy tang, maybe some umami, maybe some spice, and you’re off and running. Pile some bean salad atop lettuce for lunch, or serve it as a side, or bring it to a picnic or potluck.
To that end, I have some recipes and ideas for you.
Black, beautiful, fresh and bright
To create my basic black bean salad, I simmered up a pot of Chiapas Black Beans (Frijoles Negras de Vara), let them cool, drained them (the broth was actually really nice to sip cold), and built from there. The Chiapas beans are from Rancho Gordo; any black beans will do for this, though — dried or from a can.
Add to them raw corn cut off the cob, plus scallions, red bell pepper, cilantro, lime, salt and olive oil. You could stop there, and that’s a solid 7 on the fresh-and-delicious scale, but it goes up to a 9+ if you add some ground coriander and cumin, plus minced serrano. Outstanding, and vegan.
From there — if you want — you can embellish further. Diced avocado adds nice silky richness (and keeps it vegan), or add crumbled queso fresco. Or both!
Cotija cheese would also be good, and you could swap the fresh bell pepper for a roasted one (even from a jar). Don’t like cilantro? Use parsley instead. Quartered or halved cherry tomatoes could play well in there too, or you could char them and drop ’em in whole. This salad knows how to improvise!
Here’s the recipe:
Winning Black Bean Salad
If you don’t want to make dried beans, substitute two 15-ounce cans of black beans, drained. If you want the beans to cook faster, soak them overnight (use 1/2 teaspoon salt in the soaking water).
For the beans:
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 or 4 slices of onion (about 1/4 small onion)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
• 254 g / 9 ounces dried black beans, rinsed and drained
• Salt
• 1 or 2 dried avocado leaves (optional)
—> Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat until it just starts to shimmer. Add the onion, and let it cook three or four minutes, stirring now and then, till it starts to become transparent. Add the garlic cloves and continue cooking another minute. Add the beans, 1/2 teaspoon salt and water to cover by a couple inches, and bring to a boil over high heat. Let boil 10 minutes, turn heat to medium-low, add the avocado leaves (if using), partially cover and let the beans cook till tender. It will probably take at least two hours, or maybe much longer, depending on the type of beans, their freshness and whether you soaked them overnight. Add more boiling water as necessary to keep the beans covered with water.
—> When the beans are nearly done cooking, stir in another 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Let them cool in the liquid, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Drain the beans.
For the salad:
• 1 recipe of cooked black beans or 2 15-ounce/ 425-gram cans of black beans, drained
• 2 ears of corn
• 3 scallions (white and green parts), sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into small dice
• A big handful of cilantro (leaves and stems), chopped roughly
• 1 serrano chile, seeded and minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (1 to 1 1/2 limes)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, as needed)
• 1/2 teaspoon water
• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
Optional additions:
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 to 1.5 ounces / 28 to 42 grams queso fresco, crumbled
—> Put the drained black beans in a large bowl. Cut the kernels off the corn cobs and add them to the beans, along with the scallions, bell pepper, cilantro and serrano chile.
—> Make the dressing: In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, salt and water, then whisk in the olive oil, followed by the cumin and coriander seed. Taste and adjust seasoning.
—> Pour the dressing over the beans and vegetables, along with any optional additions, and toss it all together until well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning.
California entry could cause a floor-fight
Meanwhile, excited by a new gigante bean coming out of the West Coast — Rancho Gordo’s California Corona — I cooked up a batch of those, and loved them just as much as my other favorite gigante bean, Royal Corona, maybe even more. A surrogate bean salad ensued — basically a version of my old stalwart Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad, but with the California Coronas in place of cannellinis. I also threw in a lot of torn basil, and used the best oil-packed tuna I found in the pantry.
Easygoing and affable garbanzo-boy
Finally, because it’s always more fun when you have something fresh and unknown waiting in the wings, I threw together this lunchtime special.
It’s inspired by the simplest of salads — one my French parents-in-law frequently assemble: diced cucumbers and tomatoes with vinaigrette. Because I like to keep Persian cukes in the fridge this time of year, and friends with a small vegetable farm had gifted me some lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes, I sliced and quartered those respectively, added canned chick peas, diced avocado, lots of fresh dill and dressed it simply with red wine vinegar, salt, black pepper and good olive oil.
It couldn’t be simpler, but it’s the kind of vegan thing I could eat three times a week. You don’t need a recipe for that, right? Of course if you happened to have some leftover chick peas you simmered up from dried, this would be even better. Looking for a cheese enhancement? Try finishing it with shaved ricotta salata. Or if you want an antipasto-salad vibe, quartered slices of dry salami, or a little crisped prosciutto.
That’s all for now, bean enthusiasts. Chin up! With the help of beans, we’ll all get through this!
Lots of love,
Leslie