Black Beans, White Beans, Red Beans, I like ’em all.  People ask me all the time how I stand to eat beans almost every day.  What can I say? I guess I am just a creative cook: Bean burgers, bean smash, bean dips, hummus, pintos and cornbread, lima beans and cabbage, read beans and rice, chickpea stir fry, and white bean chili or roasted tomato chili.  Sometimes just beans and sometimes a southwest dish like this.  A southwest salad with guacamole and sour cream (okay, not really, but read on to find out something I use that is just as good).

After studying the longest living, healthiest people in the world, I found that all of them enjoy a serving of beans every day.  We spent almost two weeks in the mountainous OGLIASTRA REGION in SARDINIA.  Met many centenarians and found that their bean of choice happens to be the fava bean(a pain to prepare) and chickpeas.  Favas are delicious with fennel and tomatoes, and of course chickpeas are wonderful in stews, soups, stir fries and spreads.  I have many recipes for those, too; however, my bean of choice today is the black bean.  It is my favorite!

I have to show you some my bean collection. I have ten canisters of assorted beans sitting on my counter top to remind me to prepare a crock pot of health every morning before work.

To make this salad, you will need these ingredients:

My sister, Kayla, inspired this salad.  She adds brown rice to hers. I prefer mine without it.  I have thought about trying quinoa, but it’s so darn delicious the way it is that I hate to try it any other way. This salad is so moist and saucy that it requires no salad dressing.  The white glob of sour cream-looking stuff is really plain Greek yogurt.  Of course, if you can stand the extra calories, go ahead with your sour cream, but I can’t tell the difference so I use yogurt. The avocados are smashed down to create my special guacamole with jalapenos. The recipe is on my blog if you’re interested in making your own.  Or, you could just buy already made quac to save time.  We do that with the Salsa.  It is from a jar.  We like the Chili’s brand, but you can make your own.  You can also save even more time if you open a can of black beans instead of dry beans.

Start with a bed of cut romaine.  I like to chop it up in bite sizes.  Grill the onions and yellow bell peppers in a skillet with olive oil.  Toss those onto the lettuce, add a spoonful of warm black beans, a dollop of Greek Yogurt, and huge dollop of guacamole and salsa. Sprinkle on a few green onions if you like.  I use the fresh tomatoes in my guacamole, but if you use store bought, I would add a few and throw in a little extra finely chopped jalapeno.  This seems too simple to be this good, but believe me, you will not leave one bit in your salad bowl.  You may even lick it clean!