Saturday, September 6, 2008

Marinated Cucumber, Tomato, Kidney Bean Salad



This is just a quick post to share one of my favorite salads. Life has been a little hectic lately. I've been swimming in a sea of cupcakes. I've lost count this week but I'm somewhere in the 24 dozen range. That's a lot of frosting! I've been happy for the work because time has flown by and hopefully *fingers crossed* Hubs will coming home from Iraq in a week! I can't believe he's finally coming home! Then we're off to visit family and friends. Maybe by the end of the month life will return to somewhat normal...I hope!
Anyway other than cupcakes, I haven't had time to bake or cook much of anything. I did have time, however, to throw together one of my favorite salads. I love this salad because it has a great balance of sweet and sour tossed with some of my favorite veggies. Cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and kidney beans marinated in red wine and oil. Simple but very delicious. I love it will grilled chicken or fish. This is really more of a guide than a recipe, add as much or little of any of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

Marinated Cucumber, Tomato, Kidney Bean Salad
1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced
1 large ripe tomato, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 14 oz can of kidney beans, drained
3 Tbl red wine vinegar
1 Tbl sugar
3-4 Tbl canola oil or any light oil
salt and pepper to taste
Put first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. In a small bowl mix together the red wine vinegar, sugar, oil salt and pepper. Pour over the veggies. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. This salad tastes better the longer it sits. If you can, make it and let it sit overnight. This gives the flavors a chance to really meld together.

5 comments:

Camille said...

With the right loaf of bread this is a sald that would become a meal. I'll add this to my list of "must try".

J.L. Danger said...

so delicious! I am definitely going to make this one!

grace said...

the three main components of this (especially kidney beans) are some of my favorite things to eat, although i've never had them in the same dish. i imagine the contrasting textures (gooey tomatoes, crisp cukes, toothy beans) would be fabulous.
and wow, that's a lot of cupcakes!

DW said...

Throwing a gathering this weekend. Will definitely be serving this one.

Anonymous said...

I love this dish. Somewhere somehow, mine develops so much water, say overnight, it drowns out the taste of the vinegar.

How can I avoid this?

G-