Mexican salad

I love salads. Not because their are healthy. They remind me of Spanish tapas and Japanese kaiseki. I like nibbling and I like to eat from small plates. Weirdo!

There are many different recipes for a Mexican salad. Some use lettuce, corn and/or carrots. The dressing sometimes contains honey, orange juice and/or cumin. I do not use any of these ingredients. I like to keep it to the basic ingredients that work beautifully together.

Serves: 4 persons.

Ingredients:

• For the salad:

• 400g cooked red kidney beans
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 1 big bell pepper or 1.5 if smaller, chopped in 2 cm chunks
• 5 medium sized tomatoes, chopped in 2 cm chunks
• 2 avocados - check the video at the end!
• bunch of coriander, chopped
• For the dressing:
• 1 garlic
• 1 chili pepper
• 5 tbsp lime juice (1 lime)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. If using dry beans like me, soak them overnight and then pressure cook them. I have a wonderful machine called Instant Pot that, among other features, pressure cooks red kidney beans in 8 min. Fast and furious! It also pressure cooks them from dry in just 20 min but it cooks more evenly from soaked. A friend introduced us to this machine and we've been in love ever since.
   
2. Drain the beans and thoroughly cool them with cold water.
3. Add the bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes and coriander to the red beans.
4. Prepare the dressing:
1. Using a pestle and mortar, mix the garlic with the chili pepper.
   
2. Add the lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
   
5. Pour the dressing in the salad and mix all the ingredients well.
   
6. Cut the avocado in pieces and add these gently into the salad. Avocado gets mushy really quickly so manipulate it as little as possible.

Bon appétit!