I promise that this is an excellent thing to a) bring to parties or b) make when you are having people over or c) eat when you are having a TV and wine night all on your own. It is easy and fast and yummy and people like it. Also it uses a lot of cilantro!
Bean Salad Dip
Ingredients
1 can pinto beans (pink beans work well, too)
1/2 can corn (you can use the whole thing, but it’s better with just half)
2 tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
3-4 green onions, depending on how onion-y you like things and how big they are – chopped into thin rounds
1-2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
1 avocado
1 bunch cilantro (to taste, possibly 1-2 handfulls, chopped into bitty bits)
1 lime
salt (to taste)
cumin (1 tsp or to taste)
cayenne pepper (to taste)
Directions
1. Dump the corn and the beans into a bowl after you’ve rinsed them off. Add the minced garlic, chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, and really finely chopped cilantro.
2. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice out of half into the bowl. Save the other half for later — you may taste it at the end and decide it needs more lime juice. Mix everything around. Sprinkle your salt and cumin and cayenne pepper on top and mix together. Less is more, because you can always add more. Taste! Is it yummy? Does it need more lime juice/cumin/cayenne/salt? If so, add them!
3. Right before serving, cut up the avocado into chunks and add it. Mix it around. If you are only serving part of it for some reason/will not be eating it immediately, the avocado will go brown and mushy and gross, even with the lime juice, so maybe factor that into your prep time/leftover storage plans.
4. Serve with scoops corn chips. Or normal tortilla chips and lots of napkins.
THIS NEEDS TO BE IN MY MOUTH RIGHT NOW.
Am I the only one who can’t stand cilantro?
There’s actually a genetic predisposition to disliking cilantro.
that is the most interesting thing I learned today.
Same ! A friend of mine dislikes cilantro but that’s like the ONLY thing he doesn’t like, and he’s been trying to make himself like it.. Guess that won’t be easy. ^^
Cilantro tastes like soap
And that’s the genetic thing that Rachel mentioned above! To my palate, there is absolutely nothing soapy about it at all – but I don’t have that gene! :)
I’m pretty happy I don’t have that gene either, because cilantro tastes like joy to me.
So jealous , I love Mexican food but always have to alter the recipes due to cilantro.
http://ihatecilantro.com/
Hahaha. I hate cilantro too! I try so hard to like it. This dip looks like it would be good even without the cilantro though.
It would probably be good with a combination of parsley and mint. But I’d just do a single handful (combined), not two handfuls. I am just saying.
Now I feel like I need to start a cilantro appreciation society.
I would definitely join that.
Me too…I can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, the aforementioned cilantro-hating gene is present on my dad’s side of the family, so my father and my older brother can’t stand it (and my sister isn’t the fondest of it). Which means that we couldn’t integrate into our family dishes. We too have a bean salad recipe which is similar to this (except we don’t include avocado…I’ll throw that it next time), but it definitely lacks cilantro.