Cowboy Caviar With Avocado

There are so many reasons to love this dish. I love the combination of flavors with the fresh vegetables, beans, and the dressing. I am a huge avocado fan and love the creamy avocado and the flavor it adds to each bite. The black beans, corn, tomato, red pepper, green onion, and cilantro with the avocado give it a great southwestern flavor kick, and when you add the dressing and dip a salty chip into the dip, it is a match made in heaven.

I love the dressing, the oil and red wine vinegar have a little garlic, salt, lime, and cumin, which really enhances the flavor of the vinaigrette and dip. Eating this with a bag of tortilla chips is a huge must. It starts to honestly become a main dish rather than a side dish because you just can’t help eating a bunch. Its refreshing, flavorful, addicting, and delicious!

Looking for other summer barbecue dishes? Try our amazing Baby Back Barbecue Ribs, our tasty Potato Salad with Dill Pickles, or for dessert, our delicious Strawberry Glazed Pie!

You will need the following ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Lime juice
• Red wine vinegar
• Garlic
• Salt
• Cumin
• Black beans
• Black-eyed peas
• Roma tomatoes
• White shoepeg corn
• Avocados
• Red pepper
• Green onions
• Cilantro

I know what it’s like when you don’t have everything on hand and the last thing you want to do is run to the store and pick something up. Here are a few ideas to substitute items on the ingredients list if needed:

1. You can substitute any color of sweet pepper for the red pepper; I just think the red pepper looks best.
2. Don’t like black beans or black-eyed peas? You can use 2 cans of one or the other if you would like.
3. You could substitute 1-1 1/2 cups of corn sliced from a cooked cob of corn, or cooked frozen corn, to substitute for the can of shoepeg corn.
4. You can substitute the green onions with about 1/2 cup of red onion, diced.
5. If you don’t have red wine vinegar, you could substitute apple cider vinegar or perhaps white vinegar.
6. Vegetable oil or avocado oil could substitute for the olive oil.
7. 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder could substitute for the clove of garlic.

Step 1. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt, and cumin.

Step 2. In a large bowl, gently mix together the black beans, black eyed peas, tomatoes, corn, avocados, red pepper, green onions, and cilantro. Pour the dressing over the top and gently mix (to avoid mashing the avocado) until fully incorporated.

Step 3. Pour into a serving bowl and serve with chips.

• You can make the Cowboy Caviar in advance, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 1-2 days before serving for the best presentation. If you do prepare it in advance, wait to add the avocado until right before serving. The quality of the vegetables will soften and become more watery over time, especially the tomato.