Robin: Despite its appearance at first glance, this is not your average “salsa.”
Question: Is it a salad, a dip, or a relish?
Answer: Yes.
Southwest Salad is amazingly versatile: eat it with tortilla chips, chicharrones, or even thin slices of jicama, or mixed with lettuce in a bowl, or on the plate with grilled or roasted meat. In fact, to paraphrase Dr. Seuss, “I would eat it on a boat, and I would eat it with a goat, and I will eat them in the rain, and in the dark, and on a train…”
Southwest Salad is one of those dishes inspired by Mexican cuisine, but which you will never actually find in Mexico. The reason: it’s made with several canned ingredients, which are much despised in that country. Those ingredients—plus a few fresh ones—work really well here, and the bottled salad dressing pulls it all together. The whole is definitely much greater than the sum of the individual parts in this dish.
This dip/salad/relish is an excellent choice when you need to take something to an informal potluck. It’s surprisingly fresh-tasting (despite the canned ingredients) and a little different, most people love it, it’s easy to prepare, and you don’t even need to turn on the stove to make it. It does require a good number of hours in the fridge for the flavors to develop, though, so be sure to make this the night before it will be eaten.
Serving note: While Southwest Salad can definitely be eaten straight out of the fridge, I find it most tasty when left out at room temperature for an hour or so before serving.
Southwest Salad
Simple ingredients combine in an unexpectedly tasty Southwest-inspired mix to make the perfect side dish or dip.
Ingredients
- 1 can (15 ounces/425 grams) black beans
- 1 can (15 ounces/425 grams) corn kernels
- ½ medium-sized onion diced
- 1 green or red bell pepper (or half and half) diced
- 1 can (10 or 12 ounces/283 o 340 grams) diced tomatoes with chile Ro-tel or similar
- 1 clove fresh garlic minced
- ½ cup bottled Italian salad dressing
- 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed Mexican lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
Instructions
-
Pour the corn and beans into a strainer over the sink to drain, then rinse them briefly under running water to get the “canned flavor” off. Drain well.
-
Put all the ingredients except the cilantro into a large bowl and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 8 hours, but (preferably longer) so that each ingredient can release its magic and the flavors develop.
-
Right before serving, chop the cilantro and mix it with the salad.
-
Enjoy your delicious Southwest Salad as a dip with tortilla chips or pork rinds (fried chicharrones), or serve it as a side for grilled meats, pulled pork, etc.
-
Store any leftovers in the fridge, where they will keep very well for up to a week. Add a little more fresh cilantro when serving again, if you like, as this perks up those leftovers.
Recipe Notes
Variations:
As with most salads of this type, the quantities mentions above are mere suggestions, and they can be adjusted to what any particular cook likes and has on hand. Some ideas:
- Use another kind of cooked bean, such as pintos or kidneys, or mix two or more bean types. What about black beans and garbanzos?
- Substitute garlic powder or garlic paste for the fresh garlic.
- Want more heat? Add a bit of fresh minced jalapeño pepper.
- Fancy this salad up with some chopped avocado added to the mix right before serving. (If you do this, try to eat all the salad and not have leftovers, as leftover avocado will discolor. It will still be edible, but the dark color won’t be as appetizing.)
- Fill a peeled avocado half with a spoonful of Southwest Salad. Serve over chopped lettuce.
- Strain the liquid right before using, then mix the salad solids with finely chopped lettuce.
- This salad is so tasty made with canned ingredients that I don’t go to the extra trouble of using fresh ones, but you certainly can! Experiment with home cooked beans & corn kernels, peeled, diced tomatoes, minced chile pepper, homemade oil and vinegar dressing, etc.
Other not-to-be-missed dips:
Leave a Reply