(voted most attractive as well as most likely to be devoured)
Hello my beloved reader(s), and welcome to the triumphant return of Full/Empty! At first, term papers and vacation kept me from writing new posts, but honestly, recently it's been pure laziness. You can thank S for inspiring me to write up a new recipe - it was his lovely plating of the next recipe that caused me to take a photo of it and write it up.
This is a recipe I learned from an online forum; originally it was a black bean salad with quinoa. While I'm sure it's great as is, and quinoa sounds lovely, the fact was I had 1 pound each of 3 types of brown rice in my cupboards, and 0 pounds of 0 types of quinoa, so I took the plunge and replaced the quinoa with brown rice. Turned out great; in fact you could probably add even more rice to the recipe to stretch it a little farther and it would still be great. This is a 'salad', as I said, and I ate it for dinner by itself, but as S demonstrates in the photos, it also makes a great burrito/taco/pita filling. It seemed to taste best at room temperature; we had it the next day for lunch and it just wasn't AS good cold from the fridge. Not that we didn't eat all of the leftovers (and possibly lick the tupperware it was stored in).
Black Bean and Rice Salad
(serves 4)
2 cups cooked rice, cooled
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn, microwaved and cooled
6 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
chili powder to taste
S&P to taste
1) Whisk together dressing ingredients. Place all other ingredients in a bowl, cover with dressing, stir.
(A pitacopia of deliciousness)
This is a great option for dinner or lunch on hot days - it requires very little cooking, it's cool and not too heavy, and has a GREAT flavor/texture combination of creamy, tangy, spicy, crunchy, and rice. I'd imagine it would also be a great side for cookouts or dish to take to picnics; nothing is really in danger of spoiling, and the acidity of the vinegar keeps the avocados from browning. You don't have to keep it ice cold, it's filling, and the vegetarians at your next cookout will love you for it.
