Black Bean and Rice Salad served with Coleslaw

If you have a couple of cups of cooked brown rice left over, it is a matter of minutes to serve BLACK BEAN AND RICE SALAD. 

In a large bowl dump the rice, two fifteen ounce cans of drained black beans and a can of drained sweet corn.

If you have two medium tomatoes, chop them and throw them in. I only had a can of fire roasted chopped tomatoes, so I used that instead.

Pour on three Tablespoons of olive oil and a half a cup of balsamic vinegar.

Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste, and a half teaspoon of chili powder.

The important thing that makes the salad taste fresh is the quarter cup of chopped fresh cilantro leaves, so be sure to add that.

Stir it all together and serve.

Luckily the cilantro is still growing inside and I had just about enough. You can also find bunches of it for sale at most supermarkets. But if you can't, it is easy to grow in a pot. You do have to keep replanting it, as once it goes to seed (the source of coriander seeds) it is pretty much over for the leaves. You can buy a little packet of cilantro seeds at a nursery, or you can buy them cheaper where herbs and spices are sold in bulk, like at a co-op or natural food store. If they are fresh, they will sprout. Test a few on a damp paper towel to see if they sprout within a week's time before you bother to water them in a pot of soil.

Along with the black bean and rice salad I served a COLESLAW.

If you have an attachment for a food processor that slices or grates vegetables, now would be a good time to take it out and wash it off. Otherwise you are going to have to do a lot of grating by hand or chopping very small with a knife.

In any case, produce about two cups of grated or sliced small cabbage pieces and two cups of the same for carrots. I used a hunk of red cabbage, which was pretty, but green is also good. The good thing about having a cabbage in the refrigerator is that they last so long. You can just cut off hunks at a time to grate onto any salad, or cook it with some carrots for the vegetables of the meal.

Mix the carrots and cabbage together and add about a half cup of sugar to them. You could add less, or you could use a different sweetener if you'd prefer, or none, for that matter. But then it would taste differently.

Add about a third of a cup of olive oil and a quarter of a cup of cider vinegar.

Add in a teaspoon of wet mustard.

If you happen to have any horseradish, or as I did, an ancient jar of horseradish mustard in the refrigerator, you can add about a teaspoon of that, too.

Lastly, mix in some Nayonnaise, about a quarter to half a cup of it.

You could add in some raisins, too, if you want to, but I didn't this time.

The crunchy contrast of texture and the different colors went well with the softer, chewier bean rice salad, and the best part of this meal is I didn't have to turn on the stove. Both dishes also travel well to potlucks or picnics. You don't have to worry about the egg in the mayonnaise, because, of course, there isn't any.