This Black Bean Salad Will Knock Your Socks Off 08.07.2013

Last month, I wanted to create something delicious with two cans of black beans that were sitting in my cupboard and went on a search for a salad recipe.  I found an excellent one on Food Network that involved other vegetables with the black beans that was full of flavor and had a little kick: sold!  

The first time I made this salad, I inadvertently made a major change:  the recipe involves cooking all the vegetables -- I used all raw vegetables.  It gave the salad a nice texture and probably kept it viable a little longer than if it had been cooked, which would have made the vegetables soggy eventually.  My friend Katya made the salad with cooked vegetables and found it disappointing.  

It's also pointless to make one batch of this; you and everyone you serve it to is going to love it so much you may as well make a double batch.  Am I over confident?  You'll just have to find out.  Not all of the ingredients in the dressing are doubled because I didn't want it to be too oily; it turns out just fine with the measurements below.

The Food Network recipe makes the garlic and salt in the dressing into a paste, which I do not do, so in my salad, you're running into little pieces of garlic.  If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.

Okay, here is the recipe (doubled) with my changes noted.  The directions are easy:  make the dressing, make the salad, combine.  Enjoy!

Dressing

3 garlic cloves
1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
Juice of 1.5 limes 
3/4 teaspoon chili powder (I use the really hot powder I get from the Indian grocery)
1/4 cup olive oil

Salad

1 red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Fresh black pepper
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Hass avocados, seeded and diced
1 bunch chopped cilantro