F x 3 Salad

I am officially changing the name of this salad. Originally, when I published it in My Recipe Magic,  I called it Tricolor Salad. That was last year, red sweet bell peppers were in season, and the salad was truly tricolor: red, black, and yellow. Without a second thought, I published the recipe. The second thought came a while later, when it occurred to me that tricolors are usually flags, and this particular combination must be a flag of some country, and I have seen it recently but don’t remember where. Google to the rescue!

This is not a Social Studies quiz, beautiful people, but what do you think – where are we?

I’ll give you another visual hint.

That’s right, in Brussels, and the black-red-yellow tricolor with vertical bands is  a Belgian flag. That’s where I saw it, and what a precious gem of a city!

Next question, and this one should be easy.

Come on, you’ve all seen this one about two weeks ago!

Do you need a hint for it, too?

That’s a famous German Reichstag (German Parliament) glass dome flying a German tricolor – same colors but horizontal bands.

And anyway, bell peppers of all colors are in season now, so why not forget those pesky tricolors altogether and make a pepper confetti instead!  That’s exactly what I did.

When I lined up all four ingredients to take a picture, I liked it much better with confetti than with only red peppers. It looked festive, it looked fun, it looked Floridian! I’ve already posted one weird name, C x 3 Muffins (click here to see), why not continue in the same whimsical – read crazy! – vein?  Festive Fun in Florida is F x 3, so from now and forever, this salad will be introduced as F x 3 Salad. Mix corn with black beans, red onion, and sweet pepper confetti, add some fresh parsley, and have fun!

Let’s not forget to season it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and fresh ground pepper. It’s a great salad that combines the healthy starches of corn with the protein of black beans and the vitamins of peppers. It’s also easy to throw together on a moment’s notice, as long as you have some corn, black beans, and pepper confetti in your freezer, or a store you can run to within minutes.

I’ve seen numerous versions of corn and black beans combinations, and in many Mediterranean restaurants and stores they garnish it with red peppers, but what makes my F x 3 salad different is the important role of peppers in the overall flavor of it. Try it and see for yourself!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cup black beans, cooked or frozen and defrosted (1 can can be used instead, but rinsed very well)
• 1 1/2 cup corn, cooked or frozen and defrosted. I find canned corn too watery or too mushy, while frozen corn keeps texture.
• 3/4 cup multicolored bell pepper confetti (finely diced)
• 1 heaping tablespoon red onion, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

PROCEDURE

• To make pepper confetti, take several bell peppers of different colors each, clean, wash, dry thoroughly, and dice very fine. Freeze leftover confetti in Ziploc bag.
• Combine all ingredients, season with oil and vinegar, add salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.

Enjoy!