In Our Kitchen: A Favorite Salad

This summer there is one food that we've enjoyed almost every week - a couscous, black bean and corn salad. It started out as me mimicking a corn and avocado salad my sister-in-law, Heather, made for our annual Memorial weekend bash, but over time I've adapted it so much that's it's now quite different from the original. 

This has become our go-to party and potluck dish and is always well received, with at least a few people asking for the recipe. My favorite things about this salad is that it's delicious cold or room temperature and it makes for great leftovers. 

Ingredients

• 3 ears of sweet corn
• 1 cup (dry) couscous
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 T cumin
• 1 lime
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 red sweet  peppers (or 1 red bell pepper)
• 1 avocado
• 5oz (1/2 package) queso fresco

Directions

• cook sweet corn (in husks) in oven at 350' for 30 minutes, then set aside to cool
• cook couscous according to package directions
• rinse and drain black beans, place in a small pan
• add cumin and juice from lime to black beans, heat just until warm
• chop onion and peppers into fine pieces, mince garlic
• saute onion and peppers in hot skillet until tender (about 5 mins)
• add garlic to onion and peppers, cook for 1 min more
• pour couscous, black beans, and onions/peppers into a large bowl
• remove husks from sweet corn and strip/cut kernels from the cob into the bowl. 
• slice avocado into small cubes and add to bowl
• crumble queso fresco into bowl
• gently combine

If you try it, I would love to hear what you think!