Now don't you worry, this is not turning into a recipe blog. Let's be real, I have 0 recipes in my possession, and calling me a novice in the kitchen is being overly kind. However, it's summer and around this time of year I start really craving fresh produce and cold foods. So I made a couple fresh salads this week and thought I'd share them with you. They're so easy a Jill can do it, which means YOU can definitely do it.
Salad #1
First up is this lovely, festive black bean and corn salad:
The credit for this one goes to my much more domestic sister. She brought this salad to our family BBQ a couple weeks ago for Memorial Day. I loved it so much and asked her if she thought this was something someone of my 'ability' could prepare. She assured me I could, so I decided to give it a whirl. This salad is SO good; it is definitely going to be a summer staple for me. You can eat it alone, or as a side, or mix another protein in there for a complete meal. I actually mixed ground turkey in this salad a few nights and it was delicious! It tasted like a homemade Chipotle burrito bowl just without the rice. [*Yes, I'm eating meat again, this is a subject for another post entirely. I feel much stronger eating it, but also a lot like a murderer :( ]
There's no measuring and no cooking and I promise it tastes really, REALLY good! It also makes a lot so you can eat it all week.
Recipe/Ingredients:
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 fresh bell pepper, any color (I used orange)
Handful of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
Olive oil, salt & pepper to taste
Optional:
1 can chopped green chiles - (I had NO idea what these were, so I had to text my sis to send me a pic of what the can looked like, haha. I dumped them in and thought their consistency looked 'weird' so I immediately scooped most of them back out again!)
1 pint of grape tomatoes (I left these out)
Salad #2
I wanted to make another bean-based salad for protein, and this time I wanted to use chickpeas. I love them on salads and as hummus and was looking for another way to eat them. I clicked around on Pinterest for awhile until I came across a recipe that looked simple and fresh - and settled on this one. (Original source here.)
I changed the recipe a little bit to suit my own tastes and I definitely did not measure anything out. Who spends time doing that?! My mom is Italian and has never measured an ingredient in her life. It works and I'm sticking to it.
Check out this beauty:
This one has a completely different taste than salad #1. You could eat this stand-alone or as a side, but I don't know that mixing meat in with this one would fare as well. The flavor from the raw garlic and fresh basil is also pretty strong, so it's definitely not for mild taste buds. I love garlic in all things Italian, but I don't think I've ever eaten it raw. It doesn't have the sweet flavor it has when cooked so just be aware of that. But overall it's unique and I liked it.
Recipe/Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved or whole
1/2 large English cucumber (*I added this, not in original Pinterest recipe)
Handful of fresh basil, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Olive oil, red wine vinegar & salt to taste
So there's my first non-cooking cooking post. Never thought that would happen.
If you decide to try either of these, let me know how you like them!
What have you been eating lately?
Do you find you crave different foods when summer weather is here?
Yum! The first one looks like it would be great with roasted squash diced up too!
ReplyDeleteThe first one was SO good! Def try it out!
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