Black Bean Salsa with Cucumber and Mango

I had cooked some fresh black beans that I bought at the Farmers Market, and threw together this recipe.  It's a combo variation of two of my summer favorites: black bean & corn salad, and mango & cucumber salsa.

Recipe:

1 mango, seeded & diced
1 cucumber, seeded & diced

1/3 cup red onion, diced
1 jalepeno, seeded & diced

1 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp. Tabasco sauce (to taste)

1-1/2 cups cooked or canned black beans
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)

1) Mix together the "cool" ingredients - the mango & cucumber.

2) In another bowl, mix together the "hot" ingredients - the onion, jalepeno, cumin, and hot sauce.  You can adjust the amounts to your taste and your tolerance for "hot."

 

3) Mix the "cool" and "hot" ingredients together, then add the black beans, lime juice, and cilantro.

Is it a salad or is it a salsa?  In our house we use it as both.  You can eat it on its own, as dip for corn chips, or roll it up in a tortilla.  The cool and spicy tastes together in one dish really complement each other.  Like many spicy dishes, this is one that tastes better after a day in the refrigerator, so the flavors have time to meld.

Besides tasting great, this is a very attractive & colorful dish.  In fact, all the colors were not exactly what I planned.  My cooked black beans turned an unexpected and elegant shade of purple.  And the jalapenos from my garden were turning red, which gave the salsa even more of a rainbow look.