Recipe: Texas caviar

I need to post something every now and then, and this was something I wanted to record. It's a family favorite -- hope you enjoy it, too.

High in fiber and flavor, this is a favorite for eating with tortilla chips, on salad greens, or just straight out of a bowl. The "caviar" consists of beans and other small bits of vegetable, mixed and marinated in a spicy dressing. The recipe makes enough to fill three quart jars.

The substance:

• 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz. can of black-eyed peas (plain, NOT with bacon), rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz. can of whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped into bean-sized pieces

The dressing:

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 2 15 oz. cans of Ro-Tel Original Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles
• Juice from 2 limes
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 small bulb of garlic (8-10 cloves), pressed
• 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Mix the ingredients for the dressing into a bowl. Rinse and drain the beans, then add them to the dressing. Mix thoroughly and chill for a few hours.

The amount of cilantro is an approximation. I usually just take one bunch of cilantro, as sold at the supermarket, pluck the leaves and chop them. That turns out to be pretty close to a cup, and I don't have the bother of transferring tiny moist leaf bits from the chopper to a measuring cup and thence to the bowl, losing some each step of the way as they adhere to the side of each container. Our Kuhn Rikon Pull-and-Chop does a speedy job of mincing the leaves -- six pulls and done. The Brisbane-designed Dreamfarm Garject handles garlic pressing with ease -- no need to peel the cloves, and it's big enough to handle multiple cloves in one go.

For a lower-carb version, substitute a bell pepper for each can of beans/corn. You can also use cut green beans as a can-for-can substitute. You could even just make the dressing and enjoy it as a spicy, no-added-sugar, salad topping.

Other colors of bell pepper can be used, but the green makes a nice contrast to the red tomatoes and yellow corn.