Black Bean Taco Salad for Steemy Summer Days

Hey Steemit, I thought I'd just share one of my favorite go-to meals perfect for those living on a budget - the black bean taco salad. This a a great dish which I modified from a recipe on the Budget Bytes blog, which is also very delicious, but my version is a tad more simplified and cheaper because it uses all black beans instead of ground beef. It is also quick to make and I can typically get 3-4 meals out of it, and it still tastes great cold too which means storing the leftovers in the fridge and pulling out a bowl full whenever you're too lazy to whip something up on these hot summer days.

Anyways, lets get to it.

Ingrediants

• 1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 2 15oz cans black beans
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1-2 cups frozen whole kernel sweet corn
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• Tortilla chips
• 1/2 head of shredded lettuce
• 1 diced tomato
• sour cream

Add the olive oil or vegetable oil to a large skillet. Strain the black beans but don't rinse and add to skillet. Then add in the taco seasoning with about 1/4 cup water and heat on medium to a simmer while mixing everything up really good.

Add in the frozen corn and mix it in. I put in 2 cups just because I wanted to finish up my bag of frozen corn but at least 1 cup ought to do it. This recipe is super flexible so don't sweat it if you add more or less of anything.

Sprinkle approximately 1 cup of shredded cheese on top of the mixture while keeping the heat on low. Use whatever you tend to like on tacos; I bought the generic taco cheese mix because that made sense considering I was making a taco salad. There's no need to mix anything from here on out, it's basically just a layering operation.

Open up a bag of tostito style chips, grab a handful and crumble them over the top of the skillet until you get a layer of chips covering everything.

Shred about a half head of lettuce and layer on top of the chips. Then dice a medium sized tomato and spread that on top.

Take a second to admire your creation. You can probably turn the heat off by now too as the cheese underneath should be melted between the bean layer and the chips layer.

Scoop out a big hunk into a nice big bowl. Slap on a dollop or three of sour cream and whatever your favorite hot sauce is and enjoy - mmmm hmmmm!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below or feel free to share your own taco salad mods - I'm always looking to mix things up.

Cheers,
@nimblebodhi

#recipes #cooking