Awesome bean salad

I first came across this delightful salad from our wonderful friend Diane. She made this at a little get together at her house and I fell in love. I was so happy when she made this same salad for my bridal shower. I could have eaten the whole bowl! Diane was given this recipe from a family friend, and I'm so glad that she's since shared the recipe with me!

This recipe makes a large bowl of the salad. I just about halved it and there was still more than I could eat in one sitting (not because it wasn't super delicious!! just very filling).

Here is the original recipe:

Preti's Bean Salad

- soybeans

- white kidney beans

- red kidney beans

- red onion chopped

- cucumber chopped

- avocado, cut up

- corn (a quick saute is nice)

- cilantro chopped

Rinse and drain all beans. Combine ingredients and dress with the following dressing:

1/2 c red wine vinegar, 1/4 c olive oil, 2 T lime juice, 2 T lemon juice, 2 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1/4 t black pepper, 1 T ground cumin, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1/2 t chili powder (as desired)

The recipe uses a whole can of each type of bean. I used about 1/3-1/2 of a can of each. [I forgot to saute my corn, and totally spaced on adding the cucumber - oops!] Here is my bowl of soybeans (edamame), kidney beans, corn, white kidney beans (cannelini beans/great northern beans).

Chop a red onion...

Chop an avocado and add that and the onion to the bowl.

Chop up some cilantro and add it in. A rough chop is nice with this salad...really adds to the varied texture going on. [By the way.... I LOVE cilantro!]
Time to make the dressing. Combine all ingredients and stir up! By the way, I also am quite fond of cumin so I went ahead and still added the whole tablespoon of it. Also, I did a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for the heat.
Start dressing that salad... I halved the dressing recipe and still had too much. Used about half of the dressing I made. But I have a tupperware of leftover kidney beans, cannelini beans, and corn so I'll use that and the dressing later! [I had a frozen bag of soybeans, so I cut it open... put some into my little strainer and did a quick defrost under some warm running water. Then I placed the rest of the soybeans back in the freezer for another time.]
Stir it up and dig in!

I took a whole wheat pita and cut it up into chips and put in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes. Awesome lunch and I'm so happy to have this awesome bean salad recipe in my arsenal now!

Enjoy,

Mary