Cheap Eats: Cumin Black Bean Salad

Here at The Billfold, we love cheap and easy recipes, and a few of you have been emailing me your favorites (please continue to do so!). Here’s a cheap and easy recipe for a black bean salad by reader Catherine Range.

This is a recipe from the “save-money-and-lose-the-freshman-15” time of my life and holds a dear place in my kitchen/heart: Cumin black bean salad. It’s super healthy, makes a ton, keeps in the fridge forever, doubles as a salsa or dip if you smash it up with a fork, and doesn’t need to be refrigerated if you take it for lunch. You can also add leftover chicken to it for an extra special lunch. I ate this all the time, paid down my credit card debt, and lost the freshman 15. Thanks, black beans!

What you need:

• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1–2 cups frozen corn or edamame (basically, whatever corn-like vegetable is on sale), thawed
• 2 tbs or more of cumin (to taste — I like more!)
• 4–6 tbs olive oil (to taste)
• Optional: 1/2 cup chopped red onion or diced green onion
• Optional: 3 cloves minced garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pour black beans, tomatoes, corn in a colander. Rinse, and drain. Put in bowl. Mix together with olive oil, cumin, onion, garlic. Squeeze a lime on top. Eat.

Photo: Flickr/GudlyF

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