Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Salad
What do you do when grape tomatoes were on sale and you bought too many and no one's eating them fast enough and you don't want them to go to waste? Make Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Salad, of course!
This is another of those unwritten recipes that is totally flexible depending on what you have in the house. Since I had recently made Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake and was so head-over-heels for the tanginess of those roasted tomatoes, I was inspired to roast these guys too. I coated them with a little olive oil, salt, and sugar and just tossed them into the oven.
Once they cooled, I tossed them together with black beans--
And then added some chopped red onion, a splash of lemon juice, some red pepper flakes and a couple of spoonfuls of grated parmesan. The result was delicious and healthy and you could swap in or substitute nearly all the ingredients. I think chickpeas or red beans would be a great sub for the black beans and scallions could easily replace the red onion. Fresh corn or maybe even avocado would be great here too. In the cheese department, I think cubes of fresh mozzarella or feta would be amazing and of course you could add in some balsamic vinegar or any other spices you like.
My husband loved this and ate it as a late afternoon snack for days. It was great just having it ready to go in the fridge whenever we got hungry. Kept us from turning to the less-than-healthy offerings. I even think it would be good as a vegetarian filling for wraps (unfortunately we ate it up before I had that brilliant thought.) In any case, you can see that the possibilities are endless and you can be as creative as you want.
And all because I bought too many tomatoes...
Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Salad
5-7 servings (hard to tell because we ate small amounts lots of times)
Prep Time: 40 minutes for tomatoes to roast and 10 minutes to put it all together
Ingredients
- 1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Black Pepper
- 1-2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cans cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Some chopped red onion
- Grated parmesan cheese
The Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray lightly with vegetable cooking spray. In a bowl, combine a little olive oil (about 2 tablespoons or so) , a pinch of kosher salt, the sugar and some black pepper. Add the tomato halves and toss well to coat. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice during the process. Let cool.
2. Combine the beans, red onion, lemon juice, a couple of spoonfuls of the grated cheese, and the red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. At this point you can either eat it at room temperature or chill it. It was good both ways.
3. Salad lasts in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Enjoy!
