Black bean salad

Joan asked for the recipe. I may have posted it before but I made a few changes this time I made it.

Basically, here is what you do:

Combine 1 drained and rinsed can (15 oz size) of black beans, and one similar sized (drained and rinsed) can of corn. Add about half a jicama, cut up.

Normally you also add about 1/4 cup chopped onion but this time I went with 10 or so green onions, cut up. The green onions were a good change but you can certainly use regular onion if you prefer.

Also, you can add cut-up tomato and avocado, but they don't keep over well, so I usually don't.

To do this as a low-salt variation, I used a can of low-sodium corn (you can also get no salt added corn) and a can of lower-sodium beans. (The Kroger's house organic brand - Simple Truth, I think? - is very good for having LOTS of low-sodium choices)

I modified the dressing, mainly by leaving the salt out, but I added some other stuff to increase the flavor.

1/4 cup lime juice (or slightly more if you have it. I had four limes but they didn't have enough juice so I added some lemon juice from a bottle)
2 Tablespoons good olive oil

Then, the seasonings. 1/8 t garlic powder and 1 t cumin are the recommended ones (along with 1 t salt, which I left out). I added a generous 1/8 t of chili powder, plus maybe an equal amount of Adobo seasoning, and a couple sprinkles of smoked paprika. If you like things spicy you could add 1/8 t cayenne, either in addition to or in place of the chili powder.

You put the dressing over the beans, corn, jicama, and onions and let it sit. It's actually better if you make it a couple hours in advance so the flavors can blend. If you are using tomato or avocado, it's best to add them right before serving.

I suppose you could also bulk this up some more by mixing in cold cooked rice....make it almost like a Mexican style version of tabbouleh.

One nice thing about this salad for potlucks is that if someone there happens to be vegetarian or even vegan, this dish is fine for them. (As long as they're not a Pythagorean....). And it works as either a main dish or a side dish.  And, as I demonstrated, it can be made as a low-sodium version in case people are watching that. (And I THINK it would work for people watching carbohydrates, even with the corn and jicama, both of which are starchy....)