Tuesday 4 May 2010

Ole?

Does anyone plan on making a Mexican feast for Cinco de Mayo tomorrow? I didn't really understand the significance of the holiday, but apparently this is what it celebrates:


the Battle of Puebla.

Regardless of how much you know about the history of the day, it's a good reason to cook some yummy Mexican food. Now I can't say any of what I'll be making would actually be an authentic Mexican dish, but it seems Mexican to us and it sure tastes good!

One of our favourites (even Elysse eats this) is plain old taco salad. But this is what I do to spice it up, and Dave raves about it every time:

Black Bean Salad
(from Food Network, but I've changed it to suit our tastes)

Dressing:
1 clove of garlic, finely diced or mashed
pinch of salt
juice of 1 1/2 - 2 limes (appx. 3 tbsp.)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salad:
1 can corn kernels, rinsed
1 orange pepper, diced
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Make the dressing, in something like this if you have it (one of my most-used kitchen gadgets!): garlic first, sprinkle salt, add lime juice, gradually whisk in olive oil.

For the salad, heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in deep frying pan. When hot, add corn, orange pepper, onions and black beans, and cook for 3-5 minutes, until onions are soft (but not too soft!). Remove from heat and add dressing; mix well. Gently add tomatoes, avocado and cilantro.
Ready to eat!

We put it right in our taco salads, but I've often make it as a side dish to tortilla soup, tacos, enchiladas, chilupa, or any other Mexican dish we try. So, so yummy!
See the original recipe here.

I don't have a picture of it, but it's beautiful! I promise you'll love this! Let me know what you think!

2 comments:

becca olsen said...

yummy, thanks for posting this recipe! I attempted to make something like this the other day because it was too late to call for the recipe... I still have cilantro so I'll have to give it another go!

Natalie said...

I said Taco salad tonight to your question about what to make for dinner without remembering it was May 5 or reading your post. Too funny. What did you end up with? Maybe we'll do enchaladas tomorrow and pretend it's still the 5th.