Multi-Bean Salad - With A Mexican Twist

Yep, I'm keen on beans, and I like to add a bit of Mexican flavour to them.  Here we have a useful little side or main meal if you add a protein such as chicken to them.  This recipe is from Dinner with Georgia O'Keeffe, a book about (obviously) the meals that she made in her Santa Fe, New Mexico kitchen.  The version in the book is pretty much just seasoned and dressed beans, so I decided to ramp up the flavours a bit.
    

Georgia (image Wikimedia Commons public domain
photo taken by her husband A. Stieglitz

This collection of recipes was put together by Robyn Lea, an Australian writer who visited New Mexico to research this book at the Georgia O'Keeffe Research Center.  She sorted through fifty of her recipe and garden books, and a boxful of handwritten recipes and clippings to find her most loved dishes.  Georgia was a keen vegetable grower, and a huge fan of local produce.  Her life was a mix of growing, cooking, art and nature, but mostly art.  (Check out her works online; there are plenty of websites that show her art.)

Georgia O'Keeffe Research Center (image Wikimedia. author:Devilstocksoup) 

Slightly adapted by Sherry:


Serves 8-10:

ingredients:


1/2 small red onion, finely sliced

juice of 1 lime

1/2 green or red jalapeño, finely sliced

4 x 400g. cans of beans: I used black beans, chick peas, organic cannellini and red kidney beans but use your faves

1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped

a handful of pepitas - about 30g. (1 oz.)

1 avocado, diced

a big handful of fresh coriander, chopped or torn

a big handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped or torn

1/4 cup olive oil - I used lime-pressed olive oil

2 tsp apple cider vinegar or vinegar of your choice - I used verjus

sea salt and black pepper to taste



Method:


Place the sliced onion in a small bowl and let it marinate in the lime juice for at least 30 mins. to an hour

Rinse and drain your beans very well (I like 'em cold so I put the cans in the fridge for a while)

Then grab a big salad bowl, put in all the ingredients and stir gently

Add some poached chicken breast if you want to make it a hearty main meal

ingredients gathered

marinate the onion in lime juice

let it sit for an hour

ready to toss

pour in the oil and season well

almost ready to eat

add some poached chicken breast if you fancy 

This is a very tasty and very filling meal.  And mmm you may find it a bit windy too:=)  But delicious nonetheless, and worth the wind.  Unlike Pythagoras who it is said had an aversion to beans - "they be windy...and provoke bodily lust" - I'm very happy to eat beans and risk the impure humours - and the lust!

my beany doodle