Black Bean Salad in Pepper Cups

The right balance of colors on a plate can rouse the senses before even the first morsel of food is put into your mouth. We taste with our eyes first. Black Bean Salad in Pepper Cups is a perfect example of how just seeing a dish can fire up your taste buds and ready them for a delicious meal.  (Check out this short article on How Color Affects Your Perception of Food.)  Whenever I’m serving an entree that’s lacking in color I can always count on this salad’s bright and vivid ingredients to make an otherwise bland looking plate come alive.  Using the peppers as a serving vessel provides an extra pop of color and makes beautiful presentation.

If you prefer, you can serve Black Bean Salad in Pepper Cups without the pepper cups, as pictured above.  In this case, you’ll only need 1 orange bell pepper for the recipe.

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Black Bean Salad in Pepper Cups

Prep Time20 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: Salads

Servings: 14

Calories: 166kcal

Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN

Ingredients

• 2 15 ½ oz. cans black beans
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 avocado preferably Hass, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 4 bell peppers – red green, orange, and yellow
• 8 ounces frozen corn
• 4 scallions thinly sliced (white part and green parts)
• 3 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 2 Tablespoons organic blue agave
• cilantro optional garnish

Instructions

• Place the frozen corn in a microwave safe container, microwave on high for one minute, and then blot with a paper towel to remove excess water. Set aside to cool completely.
• Make the lime citrus vinaigrette. In a small bowl whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, agave, cumin, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
• Cut the top off of each of the four peppers. Remove the stems, ribs and seeds from each pepper and then chop the tops only.
• Rinse and drain the black beans and add to a big bowl along with the chopped pepper tops, corn, avocado, grape tomatoes, and scallions.
• Re-whisk the lime vinaigrette and pour over the black bean mixture. Combine thoroughly.
• Spoon some of the black bean salad into each of the four peppers and garnish with cilantro if desired.

Notes

Serves 4 in the pepper cups with an additional 10 - 6 oz. servings. If you don't want to serve the salad in pepper cups simply eliminate all of the peppers except for the orange bell pepper. Then chop the whole orange pepper (in lieu of 4 pepper tops) and present the entire salad in a serving dish. Honey or maple syrup may be substituted for the organic blue agave.

Nutrition Information - Serving size: 6 ounces, Calories: 1666, Fat: 6g, Saturated fat: 1g, Unsaturated fat: 5g, Trans fat: 0g, Carbohydrates: 24g, Sugar: 4g, Sodium: 161mg, Fiber: 6g, Protein: 6g, Cholesterol: 0mg

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