Cowboy Caviar

Cowboy Caviar - perhaps also known as Southwest bean salad. My friend's bother Mark made a big batch for a party a couple of weeks ago, and shared his recipe with me.  I made up a big batch for tomorrow's open house for Ben and Brandi.

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup - olive oil (or canola oil)

Salad Body

• 1 can black beans (rinsed and drained in colander)
• 1 can pinto or Great Northern beans (rinsed and drained in colander)
• 1 to 2 cans black-eyed peas (rinsed and drained in colander)
• 1 can whole kernel yellow corn (rinsed and drained in colander)
• 1 small jar chopped / diced pimento
• 1 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped bell pepper
• Up to 1 cup finely chopped jalepeno peppers (2 or more, seeded)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (1/2 of a bunch)

Instructions:

1. Bring marinade mixture to boil, and let sugar dissolve.
2. Let cool while prepping the salad body.
3. Rinse well and drain each can of beans in a colander. Dump into a very large bowl.
   (I used an extra large corn of about 24 ounces, and 2 sixteen ounces cans of black eyed peas, 1 sixteen ounce can of black beans, and 1 sixteen ounce can of Great Northern beans)
4. Rinse and drain corn in a colander, dump into the bowl.
5. Dump diced pimento into the bowl.
6. Finely chop red onion to size of corn kernels, dump into bowl.
   (I used one half of a large red onion.)
7. Finely chop celery to size of corn kernels, dump into bowl.
   (I used two large stalks.)
8. Finely chop bell pepper to size of corn kernels, dump into bowl.
   (I used one red pepper.)
9. Slice open jalapenos, removed seeds and white membrane. Slice jalapeno peppers into long matchstick slices, then dice into extremely small pieces. Dump into bowl.
   (I used two jalapeno peppers.)
10.  Dice up about 1/2 a cup of cilantro
    (It's ok to use the stems if you chop them finely.
11. Serve with Tostito "Scoops!" chips.
    

Carole's Notes:

The base recipe is from Mark Sutton. I liked the sweetened dressing he used instead of the bottled Italian dressing versions I had tried before. I tweaked it a bit - mostly adding chili powder to the dressing, and cilantro and jalapeno to the salad body. This is a great dish for potlucks - I like it with the Tostito Scooper chips so you get some salty with the sweet bean salad. It also works well on pita chips.