Sweet potato and black bean salad

serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato (or two small)
1 medium bell pepper (red, orange or yellow)
1 small onion (or half medium)
200g cooked black beans
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp dried parsley
olive oil

Method:

Peel and slice the sweet potato, cutting larger slices into two (or four) to make bite-sized pieces. Cook in a little olive oil in the oven or air fryer, turning a couple of times until they are soft and beginning to brown.

Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Meanwhile wash, core and chop the pepper, then peel and finely chop the onion. 

Place all the vegetables in a suitable serving dish, along with the black beans (drained, if using canned beans) and stir to combine. 

Sprinkle the lemon zest, garlic and parsley over the top, cover, and refrigerate until needed. 

- - - - -

In the summer months in Cyprus, I don't like to use the oven, so we eat a variety of different salads. I have found recipes in books and online, and have adapted them all to suit our tastes. I tend to make three or four for each main meal, and most of them last at least two days.  But if we were having this as a main dish accompanied by just a green salad or hot vegetables, it would probably be sufficient for two.  

As with most salads, this is highly adaptable, depending on tastes. If you hate garlic and onion, leave them out. If you don't have a fresh onion, use dried onion or omit it altogether. If you want to use different beans, that works too. 

I like black beans, and usually cook about 400-500g dried beans before the summer. Beans increase in size when soaked overnight, and 500g beans yields around 1200g cooked beans. I then then freeze them in approximately 200g portions to use for salads such as this one. 

If you prefer to use canned beans, they usually come in 400g cans; you can either double the recipe, or freeze half of the beans, or just add them all anyway if you want extra protein.

If you don't like beans, or are having this to accompany a protein dish, then you can miss out the beans entirely. It's still good. 

And if you want to add a bit of variety, or colour, then a handful of frozen peas works as an alternative. There's no need to cook frozen peas, and they thaw very quickly, particularly if the sweet potatoes are still warm.