Fiesta Bean Jar Salad

Hey there,

First off, apologies for the delay.  So I have still been making salads, but I haven’t had time to post them.  So here is the first one, and I will post the other tomorrow.

This is a modification of a Weight Watchers Salad.  Black Beans and Chickpeas provide the protein for this one, and I added lettuce and arugula to the original recipe.  The dressing is very tangy, and reasonable light, relying more on lime juice than oil as a base.  

  

Someone asked me about how I construct my salads, so I guess I will address that.  I am dependent on my kitchen scale.  I measure out the ingredients that I have, and based on the quantity of protein, I determine the number of salads I am going to make; so if I have 12 ounces of chicken, I am going to turn that into 4 salads (because 3 oz is a serving of chicken; sometimes I might stretch that into six depending on what else is going into the salad and how many are needed for the week).  I then weigh everything, and divide by the number of salads.  I basically kind of wing it with things like tomatoes.  If I cut up a pint of tomatoes, and I have 300 grams, and am making 6 salads, I just scoop out 50 grams at a time, and add that to each jar.  It is approximate, but I would say that more jars end up even than not.

This salad required very little prep and was nice and quick.  I thought it was very refreshing and would make very few changes; mostly I would add the chopped cilantro INTO the dressing rather than having it on the top of the salad.  And I did resist adding cheese to this salad, and though it does not need it, I think it would be really good.  I also thought that the cumin flavor might have been a little heavy, but my mom disagreed.

I did use fresh squeezed lime juice (three limes-worth), and I decided to try something different.  I have had some issues with my avocadoes turning, so I poured off what I needed for the dressing, and then used the rest to coat the diced avocado to try to prevent them from turning, and it actually worked pretty well.

Recipe: 

Makes 8 jars

Dressing:

3 cloves of garlic pressed

½ cup fresh lime juice

3T olive oil

3t ground cumin

1t crushed red pepper flakes

1t salt

4 cups cherry tomatoes halved

2- 15.5 oz cans black beans rinsed and drained

15 oz (one can) chick peas rinsed and drained

½ red onion  chopped

2 avocadoes cubed

1 head romaine lettuce chopped

1 head green leaf lettuce chopped

1 bunch arugula

3 T cilantro chopped

Directions:

   1.  Mix up dressing in a salad shaker and distribute equally into the prepared jars.

   2.  Drain and rinse black beans and chick peas
3.  Assemble salad: dressing, tomatoes, black beans, chickpeas, onions, lettuce, arugula, cilantro.

Enjoy!

~The Maven