Black Bean Monsoon Salad

I love me a good summer salad.

I made this on a night last week when my brother, his wifey, and two kids came into town after an ambitiously long drive. They arrived just in time for the sun to oscillate between shining and hiding with intermittent rains and gusts of canyon winds. By the way, I must've missed the newsflash within these last few years of being a Utah absentee: when was it decided that Utah had "monsoon season"? I've heard that term related to Utah late-summer weather more in the last few weeks than ever in my entire life. Well, whaddya know? Utah has quasi-monsoon weather. Hm!

Anyway.. monsoon season or not, I'd eat this easy and healthy salad all the way through November. It's one of the easiest salads ever, with a real bang for your buck as it stretches through many leftover-meals AND, it's tasty with lots of reminders in every bite that summer is awesome.

Summer... it's all about fresh, easy, and tasty meals..

It's also about children squishing each other with love on lush lawns with grass stains a plenty on their white-white shorts (mild sigh).

Summer Black Bean "Monsoon" Salad

1 can black beans, drained

1 cup frozen white corn, thawed and drained

1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 red pepper, finely diced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1 semi-ripe avocado, diced ("semi" because you don't want to TOO soft in this salad)

3 stalks celery, finely diced

1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced

3 limes

~1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp Italian seasoning

~1/2 tsp cumin

Salt

Pepper

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. In a volume measuring cup, combine the olive oil, lime juice, and seasonings- whisk well. Season with lots of salt and pepper. Pour all over salad and allow all the flavors to marinate with one another in the fridge for an hour. Or less- if you're starving:).

{Henry and Finn August 2010}