Warm Black Bean and Sweet Potato Salad;

This afternoon I decided to make my (at least for now!) favorite lunch dish: a warm black bean & sweet potato salad courtesy of OhSheGlows. I discovered this recipe last summer and since then, have made it every single time I've gone home. Now that I have a kitchen....I can make it all the time if I want to! It's a combination of some of my favorite foods...now how can that not taste good?!

The recipe is on Angela's website. I used the same ingredients as her version, but tweaked the preparation a bit to make it easier:

Ingredients:

• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large onion, preferably red, chopped  (1.5 cups chopped)
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3-4 tbsp fresh lime juice (Juice of 2 limes), to TASTE!
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 cups cooked black beans, drained (14-15oz can)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced (made about 3 tablespoons minced)

     - Instead of roasting the onions and sweet potatoes, I cube the sweet potatoes and steam them until they're soft. This is way faster and cleaner than turning on the oven and roasting! I leave the onions raw; in this case I poured some boiling water over them to get rid of the pungent smell but overall the raw onions give it a crunchy texture. If you don't like raw onions, go ahead and roast or caramelize them.

     - To cook the black beans I drain the can then put them in boiling water for a minute or so. This warms them up a bit too!

     - I mix the oil, spices, and cilantro in a big bowl before adding anything else; I then add in the beans and onions and mix that together before adding the sweet potatoes. I've found that this helps the flavors spread more evenly.

If you like these ingredients, please try this recipe. It's good, I promise :)

Here are some variations; using a red onion, with and without garlic, different amounts of cilantro...all delicious!