My meals are not fancy. I am not a professional cook. Most things I make are quick and easy. For those reasons, it has crossed my mind that I should not be food blogging. What are my credentials?
But then, most of the food bloggers I follow and enjoy lack a professional culinary background. And many of the recipes I use and enjoy are the easy ones, like this broccoli recipe from Helen Rennie at Beyond Salmon. I have also been a long-time follower of Mitch In the Kitchen. She eats what I like to eat, and I admire her bare bones, straight-to-the-point website. Last but not least, I enjoyed Andrea Nguyen’s post about the anatomy of her weekday lunches. Though she is a professional cooking instructor and food author, her typical lunch at home takes less than 10-minutes.
Bean salads are my go-to lunch. Budget-friendly, filling, nutritious and tasty–what is there not to love? There are also so many kinds of legumes, making it easy to keep things interesting.
Having two breakfast a day, I can keep lunch on the lighter side and go without the carbs. Pictured above was a recent weekday dinner by myself. I was too lazy to cook, so I ate my left-over lunch–chipotle black bean salad–and added a garlic naan from Trader Joe’s frozen aisle. I am so unfancy.
Chipotle Black Bean Salad with Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
- 2-3 ears of corn, shucked
- 1 med or small red or yellow onion (diced)
- 1 can (14.5 oz) of black beans
- 1 sweet potato (diced)
- cilantro (optional)
For the dressing:
- 1 /4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 2 chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce (chopped)
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to boil over medium-high heat. Add the corn and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and let cool.
In a large skillet, heat a layer of olive oil over medium-high heat, and place the sweet potato chunks in a single layer. Allow the sweet potatoes to cook until slightly soft, about 5 minutes, then flip. Add more oil as needed. I like to cook mine until they are slightly browned on the outside.
In a bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
Taking the cooled corn, stand each ear up in a wide shallow bowl and slice the corn kernels off. Toss the corn with the onions, black beans, and sweet potatoes.
Add the dressing to the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste, and cilantro for garnish.
