Southwestern Roasted Corn Salad; aka - Crack Salad

So this is one of favorite salads in my house.  It's original name is Crack Salad because the stuff is immediately addicting, no joke.  The recipe calls for canned corn and canned black beans but there's nothing that says you couldn't cut kernels straight off the cob and cook up your own batch of black beans.  Either way is fine.  


Very little cooking is involved and what cooking there is is actually more of a heating.  That said, you could skip the "cooking" part and still get a pretty rockin' salad.   It's vegan and if you skip the oil it'll be E2 approved.  If you really wanted to add some meat some grilled chicken would be pretty awesome.  I usually add about 2 cups of cooked quinoa to the mix to stretch it and add some protein.  If you go the quinoa route I recommend doubling the amount of spices and lime juice to compensate.  

Crack Salad


16 oz can corn, well drained
16 oz can black beans, rinsed and well drained
½ large red onion, medium dice
1 beefsteak tomato, medium dice
1 clove garlic, minced or put through garlic press
1 fat jalapeno, seeds and internal ribs removed, fine diced
juice of ½ lime
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp oregano
pinch red pepper flakes
2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp fresh-ground black pepper

Heat a non-stick skillet with about 2 tsp olive oil until very hot. 

Add corn and cook until golden brown here and there.  You don’t want to caramelize all of the corn, you’re just getting a little smoky flavor.  The kernels will start to jump and pop when almost done. Scoop corn into a medium bowl and allow to cool a little.  While cooling, add all the spices to the corn, the chili powder through black pepper. 

Once some of the heat has dissipated, fold in the rest of the veges and lime juice.  Taste for seasoning.  If you’re going to serve this cold, you may need to add a little more of the spices because the cold kills flavor.  Put in the fridge for a few hours for flavors to meld and enjoy.  If you wanted to make this a salsa instead, I would add some chopped cilantro, maybe another jalapeno and dice all the veges smaller.