Sunday 7 September 2014

Our Favourite Black Eyed Bean Salad



Do you know black eyed beans - or black eyed peas - as they are known in the USA? I must confess that I did not - until I met my beautiful husband - for whom they are a favourite food!

As a new bride I set out to impress him (of course) - and managed to butcher these beautiful beans in numerous ways!

I served them

  • too mushy - overcooked
  • too hard - undercooked
  • unpalatable - too salty
  • tasteless - not salty enough! 

We didn't have Google back then, how to cook them did not appear in any of my Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks, I was too embarrassed to ask my new mother-in-law - and obviously - I had no idea of how I should cook them!

John would politely commend each new effort and say encouraging things - but I KNEW!

Eventually, from my many mistakes, I did learn - and now am proud to say - produce one of our favourite salads!

Black Eyed Bean Salad is healthful, tasty and easy to make - so it gets three ticks from me! I hope you enjoy it too, and add it to your family favourites!

Black Eyed Bean Salad


*Start this salad the day before it is to be served


Ingredients

250 grams dried black eyed beans
sea salt
bay leaf

Method

Place the beans in a large bowl. Add cold water until the beans are covered by 5cms. Soak overnight.
Next morning drain the beans and add to a large pot of water salted with sea salt. Add the bay leaf. Bring to a gentle boil and cook until the beans are tender - not mushy! This will vary for each batch of beans and may, in my experience, take as little as 15 minutes - or as long as 25 minutes! Drain and cool.

To Serve 

Place the black eyed beans in a serving bowl and toss through the following ingredients:

1 red capsicum - diced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley - chopped
2 spring onions - finely sliced
1 clove fresh garlic - finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
1 mild red chilli - finely chopped (optional)




The Dressing

Dress the salad by sprinkling over 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice or your favourite white wine vinegar, followed by 3 tablespoons of your best EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

This makes a wonderful summer salad, and is a wonderful accompliment to steak, lamb, chicken or fish. Leftovers can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Enjoy!




Cheers!

Marian



4 comments:

  1. This salad looks gorgeous! I didn't have Google either but there were cookbooks when my interest in food deepened! Now I wouldn't be able to live without googling recipes!! Spent so many hours browsing them on the Internet!

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    1. Hi Olivia! The salad tastes as good as it looks - and is healthy to boot! Like you I am amazed at the recipes that Google allows us to access. I use Pinterest to collect them these days! Thanks for dropping by!

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  2. this looks great Marian -so vibrant and healthy. I do love a good bean!

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    1. Hi Sherry! I really the enjoy the slow, hands on process of soaking and cooking the beans from scratch before tossing through a changing variety of seasonal vegetables. They are a great way to add healthful variety to our family's diet! Thanks for dropping in!

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