Ensalada Mexicana

Wait....what? Two Mexican dishes in a row?

Yes. This Mexican salad is a quick one but very delicious. It's a great companion to the Brochetas de albóndigas from the previous entry.

And since there's not much to it let's get started right away. We'll need...

...for the salad

2 heads of red leaf lettuce, roughly chopped
2 Roma tomatoes (or make that three), quartered and roughly chopped
12 radishes, stems cut off and thinly sliced
1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1red onion, quartered, sliced and chopped
2 cans of whole kernel (maiz)
1 large can of black beans, rinsed and drained

...and for the dressing...

1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of two limes
3 garlic cloves, peeled & pressed
1 green chili pepper, deseeded & finely minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tsp ground white pepper
Sea salt

Place the spices, pressed garlic, minced chili pepper and lime juice in a small bowl, add the olive oil. Then whisk it together and you're set.

Back to the salad, though. Start out by rinsing the black beans under cold water, set aside to let them drain. Drain the juice from the Maiz (Corn Kernels) and place them in a small bowl.

Cut off both ends from the radishes and slice them thin. I used a mandolin for this but a sharp knife will do just fine.

Chop up the onion, red bell pepper, tomatoes and cilantro. When done place the veggies in a large bowl.

Remove the first layer of leaves from the lettuce, cut off the woody bottom part and run your knife through it a couple of times so that you end up with bite-sized chunks.

Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, pour the dressing over the salad and mix it all very well together. Make sure the dressing is well dispersed. And that's pretty much it. The entire salad is maybe a 10-minute job and can be made on the fly, basically.

Arrange it on a plate and serve.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, this salad goes very well with the Brochetas de albóndigas from the previous post, or simply by itself with some tortilla chips or a slice of rustic bread.

Enjoy!