Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salad with Corn Tortilla Chips #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

Here's a quick, delicious summer supper, side salad, or offering for a potluck. The lime juice adds bright flavor. The corn chips add delightful crunch. Tomatoes fresh from the garden or market would be good, too. I love that there's no need to cook the corn but, if you have leftover grilled corn, wouldn't that be great? The original recipe calls for a teaspoon of sugar, which I dutifully added, but I’ll leave it out next time. That little bit of extra sweet wasn’t necessary at all.

 

Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salad with Corn Tortilla Chips

 Adapted from Hetty Lui McKinnon in The New York Times

 

Ingredients for the dressing

2 tablespoons lime juice (fresh or bottled)

1 large garlic clove, grated

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sugar (I’ll omit this next time)

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons oil (olive, corn, or safflower)

Salt and pepper

Ingredients for the salad

4 cups fresh corn kernels (from 4 large cobs)

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed

A big handful of cilantro leaves, chopped

4 cups (4 ounces) corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed

2 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, and roughly diced

 

Directions 

To a large serving bowl, add lime juice, garlic, cumin, sugar (if using), red pepper flakes, and oil. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Whisk to combine.

To the dressing, add the corn, black beans, avocado, and cilantro. Toss to combine, taste, and add more salt and pepper if needed.

To serve, add a handful of lightly crushed tortilla chips to each plate of bowl, top with salad, and mix.

Ready to escape into summer reading? Visit Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries. 

 

Or travel to the Scottish Highlands in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. 

 

Spend time in northeast Tennessee in the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, two stand-alone mysteries, and a collection of short stories. 

 

Or travel from Cape Cod on the east coast to Monterey on the west coast, with a stop in Ohio along the way in my very gentle mysteries written as Margaret Welch. 

 

Happy reading! 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.