Italian Sausage, Beans and Corn Tropical Salad

This is another one of those spur-of-the-moment one pot dishes that I put together for lunch yesterday. It tasted great and was a well-balanced meal – with protein coming from the sausage and the black beans, carbs from the corn and beans again, crunch from the red bell pepper and yummy taste coming from the mango and spices. The corn these days is so juicy and sweet and it is one of my favorite ingredients to use during the summer. The contrast of textures from the sausage, corn, beans and mango worked really well – I’ll surely be making this again.

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Ingredients:

1. 4-5 sweet Italian sausage
2. 3 ears of sweet corn
3. One mango
4. A cup of dried black beans
5. 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
6. Juice of a lemon
7. 1 teaspoon of salt
8. 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (if you don’t like spicy foods, do not use this ingredient)
9. 1 tablespoon of honey
10. 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds
11. 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
12. 1-2 Serrano chili (if you don’t like spicy foods, do not use this ingredient)
13. A few sprigs of fresh cilantro
14. Half a red bell pepper

Directions:

1. Soak the black beans in water overnight (to soften them).

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2. Boil the beans in water for about 35-40 minutes or till they are fork tender. Drain the water out after the beans are tender and set the beans aside to let them cool down. Then place these cooked beans into a mixing bowl.

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3. In a large pot of boiling water, boil the ears of corn for about 5-7 minutes.

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4. Using a sharp knife cut the corn kernels off the corn cob and place the kernels in a large mixing bowl.

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5. Again, with a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen scissors cut the Italian sausage into bite sized pieces and cook these chopped pieces in a nonstick pan or a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil at the bottom of the pan. Make sure that the sausage is cooked thoroughly and on all sides. Then pour the cooked sausage bites into the mixing bowl containing the corn.

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6. Peel and dice the ripe Mango and place the diced pieces into mixing bowl.

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7. Chop the Serrano chili into extremely small pieces and then place these in the bowl as well.
8. Dice the red bell pepper into small pieces and place in the mixing bowl as well.

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9. Chiffonade (thinly slice) the cilantro leaves and add to the mixing bowl.

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10. In a small sauce pan heat the remaining amount of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) and heat it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, switch the heat off and then to the hot oil the fennel and cumin seeds (let them sizzle in the hoy oil for 4-5 seconds).

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11. Pour the hot oil with the sizzling fennel and cumin seeds over the contents in the mixing bowl.

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12. Add salt, juice of one lemon, red pepper (if you don’t like things spicy, do not add the red pepper flakes) and the honey to salad in the mixing bowl.
13. Gently stir everything in the bowl and then serve the salad at room temperature or you can place it in the refrigerator for half an hour and serve it chilled. You can garnish the salad with a few more cilantro leaves on top.

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