Name: Black Bean and Corn Salsa
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 2 cups fresh corn (2 to 3 ears); 10 ounces cherry tomatoes; 15-ounce can black beans (or 1 1/2 cups cooked or Instant Pot black beans); 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped; 1/4 cup lime juice (2 limes); 1/2 teaspoon cumin; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

This simple fresh black bean and corn salsa is a perfect Mexican-style vegan appetizer or summer side dish. Serve with chips or alongside a burger.

Sometimes Alex and I come across someone in real life who knows us from our online work. They’ll say something like I know all about your life, is that creepy? To which I reply, not creepy at all! In the social media age, many of us know intimate details about people we’ve never met, like the avocado toast they just devoured or the lace-up heels they’re wearing for date night. These days, it’s normal to share parts of the depths of our souls to complete strangers.

The bad of this oversharing culture: our minds become cluttered with mundane information about people we don’t know. The good: we’re able to learn from each other and feel a sense of community as we navigate life. Keep reading for more on the good and bad of social media, how this relates to this black bean and corn salsa recipe.

While many people choose to focus on the bad of technology (our brains are rotting! we’re all addicts!), it’s been a force for good these past years for Alex and me. Going through miscarriage, cancer, and navigating fall-throughs in the adoption process has been significantly easier knowing that there are others who have walked this road before us.

After sharing Larson’s adoption story online, we’ve become connected to a huge family of adopted children, birth mamas, and adoptive families who’ve connected and shared their stories. We’re walking through various parts of the adoption journey with a few of these virtual friends as we speak.

Recently, I learned that after hearing Larson’s story, a virtual friend of ours was inspired to locate her birth mama. After living into adulthood without knowing anything about her birth mom, she’s found her and will reunite in person in a few weeks! To me, that’s the power of technology: to create community, empathy, and vulnerability in the human experience. And in return, I’ll put up with the inherent “evils” of this web that connects us, so that I can experience that.

The other day, I was playing the piano with Larson. I played him a Chopin waltz; he banged out something horrible sounding. And I realized that much like a piano, life is made up white keys and black keys. If you’d like, you can learn to create beauty out of those keys by pressing them in the perfect order. Or if you prefer, you can bang on them and create something horrible. Same keys; different actions. And the same with technology: while it can be used for terrible things, why not use the same raw materials to create something beautiful?

You choose.

Our favorite black bean and corn salsa

And now, for the black bean and corn salsa recipe: I suppose this black bean and corn salsa also embodies the good that comes from the internet: sharing recipes! This black bean and corn salsa is a salsa fresca—a fresh salsa—and embodies everything that’s good about summer. Lightly roasted corn, black beans, garden cherry tomatoes, and a bit of lime and cumin. Easy recipes are perfect for summer meals on the patio; though it takes a little bit of time to put together, it’s truly simple.

Related: Fresh Mango Salsa

How to make black bean and corn salsa

Here are the basic steps for making this easy homemade salsa recipe:

Shuck the corn cobs and cut off corn kernels. Place the corn on a baking sheet in a single layer and broil 5 minutes until tender and bright yellow.
Dice the tomatoes. Drain and rinse the black beans very well. Chop the cilantro. Juice 2 limes.
In a medium bowl, mix together corn, tomatoes, black beans, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, and kosher salt. Stir to combine; taste and adjust additional seasonings as desired.

We love this salsa both with chips, as a salsa, or as a side dish. The corn salsa would be perfect alongside any Mexican-style entree; or, we’ve also served it as part of our summer grilling menu alongside Greek veggie skewers.

Looking for vegan Mexican recipes?

This black bean and corn salsa is vegan. Though we typically eat vegetarian, vegan recipes are becoming part of our everyday. Here are a few of our recent vegan Mexican recipes:

Looking for easy dinner recipes?

There are few truly easy recipes—but there are plenty of pretty simple ones! Here are a few of our favorite pretty simple recipe concepts for weeknight dinners:

This recipe is…

This black bean and corn salsa is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, and dairy-free.