Black Bean Salad - The Plant Based School (2024)

Black bean salad is an easy recipe that combines simple vegetables with a refreshing and zesty cilantro lime dressing to tie all flavors together.

Expect an irresistible combination of textures. Crispy bell pepper, creamy sweet potatoes, velvety avocado, tender black beans, corn, and a juicy dressing.

Black bean salad with corn is inspired by southwestern cooking. It is a playful combination of sweet, tangy, zesty, citrusy, fresh, and herby flavors.

You can serve it as a side or main dish with added quinoa or romaine lettuce. It is excellent for summer cookouts, picnics, barbecues, potlucks, and meal prep.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients and substitutions for black bean salad
• How to make black bean salad + Nico’s tips
• Serving suggestions
• Storage and making ahead
• Black bean salad variations
• Questions
• More Black Bean Recipes
• More Salad Recipes
• Black Bean Salad Recipe

Dietary Note: this recipe is suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diet.

Don’t have time to read the full blog post? JUMP TO RECIPE HERE!

Ingredients and substitutions for black bean salad

For the salad, you’ll need:

Black beans: you can use canned black beans or dried black beans cooked in water. Here’s our guide on how to cook black beans, should you need it.

Substitute chickpeas or garbanzo beans, pinto beans, black-eyed beans, or red kidney beans.

Sweet potatoes: peeled and diced into 1-inch or 2.5-cm cubes.

Substitute halved cherry tomatoes or diced vine tomatoes.

Green bell peppers: diced. You can substitute red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, but they’ll have a slightly sweeter flavor.

Canned corn kernels: drained. You can substitute defrosted frozen corn or fresh corn cooked at home by boiling it in water and cutting it off from the cob.

Red onion: finely chopped. If you want a milder flavor, substitute spring onions or shallots for red onion.

Avocado: diced.

Pickled jalapeños. Substitute fresh jalapeños, thinly sliced and soaked in 1 part water, 1 part vinegar, and a pinch of salt for 30 minutes.

For the dressing, you’ll need:

Fresh cilantro (fresh coriander outside the USA).

Substitute fresh parsley, basil, or mint. Alternatively, if you don’t like cilantro, you can make another dressing, such as anItalian vinaigretteortahini sauce.

Extra virgin olive oil. Substitute olive oil or avocado oil.

Fresh lime juice. Substitute fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

Maple syrup. Substitute honey, agave syrup, date syrup, or brown sugar.

Fresh garlic: chopped. Substitute garlic powder.

Fresh ginger: peeled and grated. Substitute ground ginger.

Sea salt or kosher salt.

US cups + grams measurements are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

1. Cook the beans if using dried ones

Rinse, then boil the dry black beans in a large pot with plenty of lightly salted water for about 1 to 1.5 hours or until tender.

If you use canned black beans, drain and rinse them.

Tip: Dry black beans don’t require soaking as they are smaller and have thinner skin than most other legumes.

Also, for salads, we recommend cooking the beans in salted water; they’ll taste much better and keep their shape.

Finally, to make the beans even tastier, cook them in vegetable broth or add aromatics such as bay leaves, onions, cumin, rosemary, carrots, and sage.

There’s no better method than tasting the beans to check for doneness.

Then, when you are happy with them, drain them and let them cool down at room temperature.

You can cook the sweet potatoes in the oven or the air fryer.

Preheat the oven or air fryer to 400°F or 200°C.

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes or 2.5 cm. Toss them in olive oil, salt, and black pepper.

OVEN ROASTING: Transfer cubed sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until fork tender and slightly browned.

AIR FRYING: Transfer the cubed sweet potatoes into the air fryer basket.

The cubes can overlap. Air fry for 15 to 18 minutes, shaking the air fryer basket every 4 minutes to ensure even cooking.

To a food processor or blender, add fresh cilantro, lime juice, maple syrup, chopped garlic, peeled and grated ginger, salt, and olive oil.

Blend for a couple of minutes, then taste and adjust for salt.

4. Mix the black bean salad

To a large mixing bowl, add the black beans, finely chopped onion, pickled jalapeños, roasted sweet potatoes, corn kernels, diced green bell pepper, and diced avocado.

Tip: only add the avocado if you are serving the salad within 2 hours of making it, as it will oxidize and brown. If you are meal-prepping, then add the avocado shortly before serving.

Toss the salad with the dressing.

Taste and adjust for salt, and let the flavors meld for 15 – 30 minutes before serving.

We eat this black bean salad as a main meal, usually for lunch, sometimes for breakfast or dinner.

It’s excellent to stuff a tortilla wrap next to tortilla chips or to make an easy grain bowl with added lettuce and quinoa.

Also, you can add even more goodness by topping it with:

• Chipotle sauce
• Tahini sauce
• Avocado spread
• Vegan sour cream
• Guacamole
• Quick pickled red onions

Storage and making ahead

Make ahead: Black bean salad with corn is an excellent recipe for meal prep. It keeps well for several days, and its flavors meld and intensify with time.

However, when making ahead, keep the avocado out until you are ready to serve it, and add some extra dressing the next day, as the salad can dry out in the fridge.

Refrigerator: Store the salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Remove from the refrigerator 15 minutes before serving.

Freezer: we do not recommend freezing this recipe.

High-protein black bean salad

You have several options to increase the protein content of the salad based on your dietary requirements:

• Vegan diet: Double the amount of black beans or add one can of chickpeas. For even more protein, add tofu. You can use air-fried tofu, grilled tofu, pan-fried tofu, or baked tofu.
• Vegetarian diet: All of the above. In addition, you can mix in 1 hard-boiled egg per serving or serve it next to a dollop or two of cottage cheese or yogurt tahini sauce.
• Omnivore and flexitarian diet: All of the above. In addition, you can mix in grilled or pan-fried chicken.

Black bean and quinoa salad

Add boiled quinoa to make this black bean salad even more nutritious. It’ll keep you healthy and satiated for the whole day.

It’s the perfect meal prep recipe for lunch, dinner, and post-workout meals, as the ingredients in the salad are packed with nutrition, wholesome plant protein, healthy carbs, vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.

You’ll need 1/2 cup of dry quinoa boiled in 1 cup of water and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Cook the quinoa as per package instructions, let it cool down for 15 minutes, then add it to the black bean salad.

Substitute brown rice, farro, buckwheat, amaranth, or millet for quinoa.

Black bean mango salad

Black bean salad with mango and quinoa is sweet, juicy, creamy, and refreshing.

It’s an original spin on classic black bean salad, and it’s perfect for hot summer days as a light lunch or as a side for barbecues and potlucks.

Here’s our black bean mango salad recipe.

• Mediterranean salad
• Black bean soup
• Sweet potato hash
• Breakfast burrito
• Mango quinoa salad
• How to cook black beans
• 10 recipes with black beans

If you love healthy and fulfilling salad recipes, take a look at our most loved salads:

• Green bean salad
• White bean salad
• Chickpea salad
• Avocado salad
• Barley salad
• Rice salad
• Lentil quinoa salad