Black Bean Salad

Colorful, healthy, easy and low-maintenance, corn and black bean salad is the summer side dish that can do it all. It’s a marinated salad wherein fresh ingredients and a couple of canned staples hang out in the fridge in a dressing. Whereas other salads wilt or get soggy if dressed ahead of time, this salad improves with some time in the fridge for the flavors to get to know one another. It’s a winning attribute that makes this black bean salad a dish I return to over and over as a hero for summer get-togethers and picnics and also as a make-ahead lunch.

Black Bean Salad Ingredients

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

• Corn: Corn adds sweet flavor and an appealing bright yellow color to this salad. The recipe calls for drained canned whole-kernel corn, but you can also use frozen or fire-roasted corn once defrosted.
• Black beans: Raid the pantry for this centerpiece ingredient, which bulks up this salad with fiber and protein. Drained and rinsed canned beans require no effort at all, but you can also cook beans from dry and use them instead.
• Sweet red pepper: Chopped red pepper adds bright color and sweet crunch against the beans’ soft texture.
• Tomato: This is a must for all summer salads. You can use any color tomato you like, chopped, but do take the time to seed it; otherwise, it contributes too much moisture.
• Green onions: Chopped green onions bring freshness and bright onion flavor to the salad.
• Red onion: Chopped red onions pungency is tempered as it sits in the citrus and vinegar in the dressing, but it still has a pleasant piquancy in this salad, a contribution as welcome as its purple hue.
• Jalapeño pepper: Seeded and chopped, fresh jalapeño remains slightly spicy, but seeding it first mitigates the heat. Feel free to leave the seeds in if you don’t mind some spice!
• Garlic: A single clove of minced garlic contributes a big flavor. If you like, grate it in with a microplane to avoid bits of garlic.
• Italian salad dressing: This black bean salad marinade is a homemade and store-bought hybrid. It calls for bottled Italian dressing, which is seasoned with garlic and oregano, as a base.
• Cilantro: Minced fresh cilantro adds that quintessential southwestern flavor to this bean salad, but if you’re not a fan, you can add additional green onion instead.
• Lime or lemon juice: The acid in fresh citrus juice softens the vegetables and soaks into the beans, which helps carry the other flavors of garlic and chili throughout the salad.
• Hot sauce: While this salad isn’t terribly hot, a splash of bottled hot sauce adds some dimension to the abundant veggies. Feel free to add more or leave it out to suit your preferences.
• Chili powder: Store-bought chili powder is typically a spice blend that contains some dehydrated and garlic in addition to pulverized chile peppers. It’s an easy way of adding seasoning and a little heat to the salad dressing.

Directions 

Step 1: Combine all salad ingredients and marinate

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Combine corn, black beans, sweet red pepper, tomato, green onions, red onion, jalapeño pepper and garlic in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the Italian dressing, cilantro, lime juice, hot pepper sauce and chili powder. Pour over corn mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least six hours or overnight. Serve!

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Black Bean Salad Variations

• Use it as a topping for nachos: It may be a stretch to call it a salad if it’s served on a bed of cheesy tortilla chips, but it’s a combination that works regardless. Drain the black bean salad through a sieve to remove any excess dressing and then scatter the salad on top of a baking sheet of nachos.
• Make it a salsa: The sweet, spicy and tangy flavors of this salad mean that it’s equally good scooped up with chips as it is eaten on its own; it may be even better. Serve it with chips for dipping or use it as a topping for grilled fish or chicken.
• Change out the dressing: Italian dressing is a solid bet because it’s a household staple for many people and it has a great garlicky, tangy flavor. That said, you can absolutely swap it out for any vinegar or citrus-based salad dressing (steer clear of dairy or mayo-based dressings.) Apricot orange vinaigrette would bring a pleasant sweetness and a smoky cumin vinaigrette would be perfect with the black bean salad southwestern flavor profile.

How to Store Black Bean Salad

Store leftover black bean salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.

Can you make black bean salad ahead of time? 

Absolutely, in fact, this recipe requires a minimum of six hours of time to marinate in the fridge. Make this salad one to two days before you plan to serve it. Consider packing it into individual serving-size portions if you’re making it ahead of time to meal prep it.

Black Bean Salad Tips

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Why is my bean salad watery?

As corn and black bean salads marinate the ingredients release moisture when in contact with salty salad dressing. Some amount of this moisture transfer is unavoidable. This is why we recommend serving this salad with a slotted spoon so you can let excess dressing fall away as you serve it.  One thing you can do to mitigate this is to remove the seeds from your tomato and make sure your beans and corn are well drained after rinsing them.

Can I substitute a different kind of canned beans?

You certainly can. This salad would be equally striking with cannellini beans or if you’re doubling the recipe, use one can each black and white beans.

Can you make black bean salad using fresh corn instead of canned?

Yes. Plan on two to three ears of corn, depending on their size, to replace one can of whole kernel corn. You can boil, steam or  microwave the corn to par-cook it. Once the ears have cooled enough to handle them, slice the the kernels off the cob to add to black bean and corn salad.