Healthy Cowboy Caviar

I think people tend to believe that eating vegetables and enjoying their lives are mutually exclusive events. I promise you, as a dietitian and person who loves to enjoy life, they are not mutually exclusive. My proof of this theory is my version of the cowboy caviar recipe. Before I made this recipe, I asked myself why it's called "Cowboy caviar" in the first place? Wikipedia says that ""cowboy caviar" comes from the term "Texas caviar", and it's a bean salad consisting of black-eyed peas lightly pickled in a vinaigrette-style dressing, often eaten as a dip accompaniment to tortilla chips."

So basically, this is the Texan version of a bean salad and I'm so into it because it makes eating vegetables a GOOD time. The reason why I love this recipe is because when you go to make it and you're accidentally out of one random ingredient, it wouldn't ruin the whole recipe. It's customizable to your liking and depending on what you have that day. So in my case, I had all the main ingredients to make it so corn and beans. But then I added cilantro, jalapeño, red onion, yellow bell pepper, avocado, and lime to make it my own. Some tend to add tomato, I think it makes it a bit watered down, I wanted this to be crunchy in each bite.

This can be a recipe you make for lunch one day when you don't have the energy to bake or do anything. It can also be a recipe you make as a dip to serve friends you're having over this summer - that's what I did! You can also make this as a side dish and serve it with some fish, chicken, any lean protein of choice and some rice. Again, it's customizable and so versatile. You're going to love how easy it is to whip up.

This recipe is dairy free but if you wanted a touch of cheese in this recipe for some extra flavor, try out a garnish of cotija cheese.

Yields: 4

Portion: -

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes (you can avoid this cooking time if you use canned corn)

Total time: 1 hour

This recipe is dairy free, gluten free, and vegan.

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Ingredients:

3 corn on the cob (or 1 15oz can of corn kernels)

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 avocado, chopped medium

½ cup finely diced red onion

½ jalapeño, finely diced

⅓ cup finely diced yellow bell pepper (use any color you want)

¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Juice of 3-4 limes (3 if you don't like it to be too citrus-y, 4 if you do)

1 tbsp salt

Optional: cotija cheese as garnish

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Instructions:

1. Prep corn: to make this more of a fresher, authentic corn-based recipe, I baked the corn in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400, grab a baking pan, place the corn on the cobs onto the pan. Coat with olive oil generously and season with salt and black pepper. Make sure the corn are evenly coated, bake in the oven until crispy or when the kernels look plump and are bright yellow in color.

2. Prep ingredients: as the corn bakes, add black beans, avocado, red onion, jalapeño, bell pepper, and fresh cilantro into a serving bowl.

3. Chop corn: once the corn is done, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Using a knife, prop up the corn onto a cutting board vertically and gently slice off the corn kernels off of each cob. Add all corn kernels into the serving bowl.

4. Serve: pour on lime juice and season with salt. Enjoy!

I hope you love this Healthy Cowboy Caviar recipe as much as I did, so if you do, please leave me a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I always read through my suggestions and comments, so please let me know your thoughts. If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me here or through Instagram. Speaking of Instagram - please tag me in all of your creations! I love seeing how the recipes come out and seeing how talented you all are. Sending my love.

xoxo,

Jasmin D the RD