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Spicy Black Bean and Corn Relish

Fast and easy, almost everything comes from a can, jar, or bottle, but the brand of each is important. Substitutions might not work well. Serve cold, a good summer snack or topping for grilled anything. Preparation: 20 minutes. Yield: 2 quarts or about 4 pounds.
Ingredients:
Ingredients

* The La Costeña jalapeños are delicious and are packed with pickled onion and carrot slices (you can also get get the carrots separately). Make sure you get the sliced jalapeños, not the whole ones.
Directions:
  1. Drain the beans but don't rinse them; the thick stuff at the bottom is good. Put beans with thick juice and residue in a big ceramic bowl.
  2. Remove skin from cucumber, optionally remove seed core, cut into bite-size pieces, put them on top of the beans.
  3. Sprinkle fresh Mexican chili powder liberally over the cucumber pieces.
  4. Drain and add the corn, squeeze juice from a lime and grind some black pepper over it.
  5. Open the jalapeños can, pour a little of the liquid into the bowl and drain the rest. Cut up the peppers into smaller pieces and add them (with the carrot slices and onions) to the bowl.
  6. Drain liquid from Goya salad olives and dump them all into the bowl.
  7. Put about half a jar of Mezzetta roasted pepper strips (drained or patted dry with a paper towel); the strips are pretty long so you might want to cut them up a bit.
  8. Squeeze in the juice of the second lime, and also put in some lime pulp.
  9. Spread sunflower seeds over the top.
  10. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil over everything.
  11. Add a whole bottle of La Costeña green salsa.
  12. Mix it all up and let chill.

The result should be juicy, not dry. Should be enough for a week or two (for one person). Serve over low-fat cottage cheese, Chobani nonfat plain Greek yogurt, or a mashed boiled egg. Accompany with tostadas, platanitos, casabe (as in the photo), or any kind of cracker you like. Goes well with ice tea.

Variations:


Updated and links checked: 23 December 2020