Why make a boring old Bean Salad when you can make it a COWBOY one?? Fun to say, delicious to eat, this big, juicy black bean salad is fresh, simple and fully loaded, tossed with a lime dressing laced with South Western spices.
Use any beans you want. Serve it as a side, stuff into tacos, pile onto nachos. Lasts for days – think meal prep and work lunches!
Cowboy Bean Salad
“Bean Salad” just sounds so dull. But stick the word “Cowboy” in front of it, and suddenly it sounds so much more exciting. Right? Same dish, different packaging. Age old marketing trick! 😂
Though actually, this is a riff on a salsa dish known as Cowboy Caviar in the US. With one big important difference – it has a fraction of the sugar. Cowboy Caviar is traditionally made with so much sugar, my tooth aches just reading recipes!!
This Cowboy Bean Salad has the same good stuff in it – but 95% less sugar in the Dressing. I guarantee you won’t miss it!
You’ll love how this bean salad lasts for days and days!
What you need for Cowboy Bean Salad
Here’s what you need! Use any beans you want – even lentils or chickpeas. And if you’re one of those coriander/cilantro haters, switch it for chives.
How to make it
Pop open cans, shake up the dressing and sharpen your knife to get chopping!
Bean Salad to serve with anything!
Interesting enough for a meal, great side for any protein! It’s especially ideal for South American food and Southern/South West/Texas, most Western foods and Middle Eastern dishes.
1. Side dish for mains – it’s hearty enough to serve with beef, fresh enough for fish, and everything in between! Because it’s a salsa-type salad, you can also serve it spoon ON the cooked meat.
Main dish suggestions
2. Light meal – it will keep you full thanks to the beans!
3. Dipping salsa – scoop it up with corn chips;
4. All things Mexican – stuff in / pile on tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, fajitas
Mexican dishes
This will keep for 4 days in the fridge – and the avocado won’t go brown (contact with air makes it go brown, the Dressing provides a film to stop this from happening). I like to add a squeeze of lime to freshen it up, then give it a toss and dig into it! (again) – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Cowboy Bean Salad
Ingredients
Cowboy Bean Salad:
- 400g/14 oz can black beans , rinsed & drained (Note 1)
- 400g/14 oz can corn , drained (or frozen thawed 1.5 cups)
- 1 red capsicum/bell pepper , 1cm/1/3" diced
- 1 avocado , diced
- 1 red onion , diced
- 3/4 cup coriander/cilantro , roughly chopped
- 250g/8oz cherry tomatoes , quartered (or 2 large tomatoes, deseeded and diced, Note 2)
Cowboy Lime Dressing:
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp chipotle powder (or American Chili Powder, Note 3)
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 garlic , finely ninced
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Shake Dressing in a jar.
- Place Salad ingredients in a big bowl. Drizzle over Dressing, toss.
- Serve immediately, or keep for up to 4 days! Might need a squeeze of lime to freshen the flavour.
- Serve as a light meal or side (goes with everything - beef, fish, prawns, pork, chicken). Especially great with all things Mexican – stuff in / pile on tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, fajitas - and Southern Foods (pulled pork, barbcue ribs, fried chicken!)
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
This is what it looks like when a 40kg/80lb dog jumps on you in the pool!
Oh yum! What a tasty, economical, easy to prep salad. The combination of flavours in the salad & dressing make it a real winner. Pretty versatile when you consider it can do as a side, a salsa or a dip with corn chips.
Love this, I used 4bean mix. Perfect to eat in this heat wave.thankyou
Another winner! Was absolutely delicious to eat with corn chips. We had it as a side with our refried beans quesadillas.
So easy to make, beautiful pops of color and absolutely delicious!!
This was a definite yum! I forgot the sugar (didn’t miss it) and topped it with diced cheese and served it as a light dinner.
Absolute winner of a salad and nails the trifecta: easy, quick and cheap! Also great to feed a large group of people. I paired it with the Mexican Shredded Chicken and the extended family have requested an encore! Thank you
Yee haaaa!! Enjoy! N x
Hallo Nagi, I’ve just made this and it tastes delicious and I’m planning on putting it over your Mexican CousCous for dinner tonight! I’m Aussie but have been living in Austria for 10 years so I sometimes end up subbing a lot of ingredients but most of the time things still turn out great! I just wanted to thank you for sharing your wonderfully tasty recipes with all of us, for free (!), with a beautiful website that works perfectly (with very few ads compared to other sites).
Another favourite salad recipe from Nagi!! I used a big tin of 4 bean mix, and added extra tomato as I didn’t have capsicum. Also a big handful of chopped parsley and spring onions. I loved the tip to scoop out the juicy insides of the tomato! Definitely a keeper 🙂
Another delicious success (naturally). Used a can of 4 bean mix & served with pork sausages. This will definitely be added to the rotation as we eat A LOT of salads up here in the Darwin heat!
Absolutely yummo! We have it as a main with a piece of grilled chicken or crispy skin salmon and just as scrumptious a day or two after.
Thanks! N x
I love this recipe. I have made it as a mason jar lunch salad. I am trying to make it a bit lighter. Can I cut the amount of oil and sugar in half?
In California corn is currently in season, how should fresh corn be used in this recipe? Thanks
Hi Sue – you’ll need the same gram amount of kernels, I would chop it off the cop then toast in a pan over high heat until golden and cooked (5 minutes). Allow to cool then use in the recipe 🙂 N x
Made this tonight! So yum, I added rice to bulk it out slightly as we’re vego and made home tortilla chips to go with it! Very nice but probably a little too much onion for my liking. But overall my bf said it was amazing and I should make it when people come over so thanks for another healthy light, easy dinner recipe!
Love this! One of my favorite salads to make. Delicious and enough to have as a meal, not just a side.
Delicious! Used cannellini beans as I didn’t have black beans and I only had raw corn so cooked the kernels for a bit. Absolutely delicious! Love the dressing!
I added another tablespoon of lime. Loved the bean salad! So refreshing during the summer months.
Amazing as always. I have been trying to eat less meat so I whipped it up for work lunches. This is fresh, flavoursome and SO easy to make.
Made this for NYE gathering and got so many compliments. Nagi never fails me!
Excellent addition to our Mexican Fiesta spread. Colourful, flavourful, nicely different alternative to the slaw that we also had on the table. Thank you. 🙂
Hi Nagi! I looove this recipe but something I’ve been wondering.. the recipe calls for 1 can beans and 1 can corn, however you have two cans in your photo and they look like normal 400g cans. So I just want to be sure of the quantities please? Thanks again – your recipes are always amazing!
Hi Kathleen, I mention this in the recipe: {Quantity: Written recipe scaled down to use 1 can of each beans and corn, pictures and video show double batch} – N x