Black Bean Salad with Creamy Avocado Cilantro Dressing

This is one of the most delicious and nutritious salad that I have prepared. Black bean salad with creamy avocado cilantro dressing. Growing up kidney beans were my favorite beans but now I prefer chickpeas and black beans.I find them to be more versatile to use in creating new recipes, like my General Tso’s chickpeas and my vegan black bean burritos.. Another thing that I love to do is, to include lots of different vegetables with different colors in my salads. We eat with out eyes, so I do my best to make dishes that are very pleasing to the eyes and also very flavorful. This salad is no exception, I include a base of chopped Romaine lettuce (my favorite), chopped red and yellow bell peppers, black bean, organic corn, avocado, spring onions.

This salad is hearty and it really doesn’t require lots of prep time except for cooking the black beans or you can just use canned beans instead. You can also use canned, fresh or frozen corn (I like to cook my frozen corn for about one minute in boiling water). The dressing is creamy and delicious with a blend of almond milk, avocado, cilantro, cumin and garlic. This salad is delicious on its own for a light meal, served as a side or like how I had it as the filling for a veggie wrap using brown rice tortilla.

Ingredients:

Salad:

• 1 head Romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups cooked or 1-15 ounce can black beans drained
• 1 cup organic whole corn kernel
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1 spring onion, chopped (white and green parts)

Creamy Avocado Cilantro Dressing:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin (optional)

Directions:

For the Dressing: Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth, scraping down the sides. Keep leftovers refrigerated for about 3 days.

For the salad: Toss lettuce, black bean, corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, avocado, spring onion in a large bowl, drizzle with dressing and serve.