Black Bean and Corn Salad

This refreshing black bean, corn and tomato salad can be made any time of year but is particularly nice when the weather turns warm. You can serve it as is for a side dish, as a filling for lettuce cups, tortillas or omelets, or as a salsa with tortilla chips. The possibilities are endless but the quantities aren’t, so make this one early and often.

I use grape tomatoes here because they are available and sweet all year and look gorgeous in the salad but feel free to substitute seeded and diced tomatoes of any kind as long as they are ripe and taste good on their own.
To make this more salsa like you can up the tomatoes or use seeded and diced regular tomatoes instead of the grape tomatoes. The pictured version used seeded whole tomatoes and canned green chilies for a more salsa-ish texture, and because that was what I happened to have at the time.

Black Bean and Corn Salad

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn or 1 3/4 cups frozen or fresh corn kernels
1 or 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
salt

Combine all ingredients except salt in a bowl and toss to incorporate. Taste and adjust seasoning with a little salt and/or more lime juice. For a mild dish, use one jalapeno and scrape out all seeds and membrane. For a spicier dish, leave a little or a lot of the seeds depending on heat preference.