Avocado Salsa

I can't believe how the summer flew by!  We have had a super busy summer (my first not working outside the home full-time) and I haven't made the time to post.  School starts this next week for us Oregonians and with my son starting Kindergarten at 7:45 am (I know crazy!) we'll be on a better schedule and I'll be making more time to post.  I wanted to make sure everyone had this salsa for their BBQ's going on this weekend, so make it in if you can!  It's so good.


Some people call this cowboy caviar but my sister calls it avocado salsa and that's where I got the recipe.  If you've never had it before and you love corn, black beans and avocados then THIS is for you!  Oh my it is DELICIOUS!  I think it's the best one I've ever had.  It has the perfect balance of ingredients and seasonings.  So good!  It's a hit everywhere I take it and it is the perfect salsa for a BBQ.  I only made HALF of this recipe and it was still a HUGE amount of salsa.  I made it for 4 adults, 2 teenagers and 3 kids and we didn't even make a dent.  Make the full batch for a large crowd and half of it for a smaller gathering.


Ingredients:

5-6 avocados (diced)

4-5 Roma tomatoes (only use roma) (diced)

2 pkgs frozen corn (16oz bags)

2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)

1 bunch of cilantro (cut up finely)

1 bunch of green onions (chopped)

1/2-3/4 bottle Kraft zesty Italian dressing (light works great too!)

2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp seasoning salt

First you are going to dump the corn into a bowl.

Add your nicely diced tomatoes.  You don't want them too

large because you want them to fit on a chip.  Why Roma? 

They are firmer and have less seeds.  Perfect for this salsa. 

IF you have to use regular tomatoes, then make sure you

deseed them really well or your salsa is going to end up

super soupy.

Add your diced avocados.  I probably should have diced

them smaller, but I LOVE avocados so I didn't!  And they

ARE the star of the show so do whatever you like.

Add your black beans.  I was making this on a Sunday

morning and thought we had black beans on hand which

we didn't (SMALL SCREAM INSIDE!).  Luckily I thought

of using my pressure cooker and cooked myself some up

in 45 min.  If you use ones you've cooked yourself then

add 1 1/2 cups (drained).  They worked perfectly!

BTW-love the pressure cooker!  I'm using it for some pinto

beans this weekend for Sunday dinner - yum-o!  Pinto beans

in 45 min. 

Also, it's way cheaper to cook up a bunch of beans in a

pressure cooker or the crock pot, use what you need and

then I freeze 1 1/2 cups in individual baggies that you can

pull out of the freezer and use in your recipe and they work

just as well as canned ones, but saves you money.

Next add your cilantro, green onions, garlic salt, garlic

powder and seasoning salt.  Mix together very gently.

Next add your Italian dressing.  I would start with 1/2 bottle

for a full batch and 1/3 bottle for a half batch and mix

together before using more.  You don't want the dressing

to overpower everything else.

Use the light dressing, you can't even tell the difference

AND you are cutting out a LOT of calories.

Mix everything together and let it sit in the fridge for a few

hours. The Italian dressing helps keep the avocados

looking good and we even ate some leftovers the next

day, but by the third day it was salvageable, but on it's

last legs.

Add some chips and DIG IN!!!!  Yum...

Avocado Salsa printable recipe here