What We Crave: Summer Salsa

If you are anything like me, you have a lot of get-togethers and barbecues to attend during the summer, and you can only handle so many seven-layer dips and jars of boring grocery store salsa before enough is enough. This corn and black bean salsa is great because it is low in calories, can be made ahead of time and is completely customizable to your taste buds. For instance, if you like olives (nasty little things) you should chop some up and add them in – or you can omit any of the ingredients you don’t care for. You’ll need:

One can of (low sodium) black beans, rinsed well and drained

One 12 oz bag of frozen unsalted salt yellow corn, or corn cut off 3-4 cobs

One yellow onion, diced

One tbsp of olive oil

Two red or orange bell peppers, diced

Fresh cilantro, chopped well

Half of one red onion, diced

One lime, cut in half

2 ripe avocados, sliced into cubes

Favorite hot sauce, salt and pepper

Optional: diced jalapenos, green onion, olives, chopped fresh tomatoes, parsley

Your first set of ingredients will be sauteed over medium heat in a nonstick pan. Saute the bell peppers and yellow onion with a few shakes of hot sauce until the veggies soften & the yellow onions are translucent. Then add the frozen corn and black beans and stir until it is all warm; it should only take a few minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to cool (I pour it into a serving bowl & pop it in the fridge).

Once it is cool, add red onions, cilantro, avocado chunks, salt and pepper to taste, the juice of half of the lime and any other ingredients you enjoy. Keep cool until serving. Set out with chips or jicama sticks for dipping. You can also add a scoop into tacos, scrambled eggs or serve this on the side with chicken and rice. The possibilities are endless!

Daisy is a lawyer married to a lawyer (insert lawyer jokes here) living in a small condo in a big city with a new baby and beagle. She breaks up the legal-speak by blogging about life in Chicago, which is filled with escapades of urban living. In the summer she enjoys patio dining and in the winter wonders what she was thinking when she moved here. You can read more from Daisy on her blog, Just Daisy.