Spicy Black Bean Salad

Some days, it's just too hot outside to cook.  Even with the air-conditioner on, there are days when I really don't want to be standing over a stove stirring anything.  Unfortunately, in Texas, that seems to happen for a good three to four months out of the year.  So I'm trying to put together some recipes that can be made with minimal heat and preparation. This is one of them.

You will need:

• 3 15-oz cans of black beans
• juice of half a large lemon (about 2 tbsp)
• 1 jalapeño pepper
• 1 green chili pepper
• small handful of cilantro
• small handful of flat-leaf parsley
• walnut oil, to drizzle
• salt, to taste

 Rinse the beans in a colander and drain well.  Dump them all into a medium mixing or serving bowl.  Next, chop up the herbs and peppers.  Add them to the bowl.  Pour the lemon juice in and mix well.

Add salt to taste, and drizzle some walnut oil over everything.  If you don't have walnut oil, extra-virgin olive oil should work well too.  And if you still want the walnut taste, finely chop a handful of walnuts and mix them in too.

 Serve as a side dish, or with rice and veggies for a meatless main dish.  Or you could do what we did, and just spoon them over baked potatoes with feta and sour cream on top.  And if it's just too hot to use the oven to bake your potatoes, I promise not to tell if you just nuke them in the microwave.