Meatless Monday: Quick Fix for A Hot Night

We’ve survived our first heat wave of the summer. While striving to eat well while also keeping cool, I discovered a quick fix for a hot night – a quick and easy bean salad, no cooking required, and enough to supply several meals for two. The inspiration was a recipe from the Cabot Creamery website for Black Bean and Veggie Salad with Lime Cinnamon Vinaigrette. 

My version of the salad, in close-up

I had to tweak the recipe a little. I only had one can of black beans, so my dish was half black and half kidney beans. Also, since I had not seen Jalapeño Cheddar in any of my usual stores, I substituted Pepper Jack. Finally, I added a little Penzey’s Adobo Seasoning for a bit more kick. Served on a bed of baby arugula greens, this salad was (and continues to be several days later) delicious and refreshing.

This is a fitting week to honor the folks at Cabot with a shout-out. Cabot Creamery is a 1,200 farm family dairy cooperative with members in New England and upstate New York.  In this “International Year of Cooperatives,” Cabot is one of the sponsors of the 2012 Community Tour, a two-month program “celebrating those who give their hearts, time and skills to strengthen communities.” Community Tour riders mounted their bikes on May 12th in Miami, Florida and have been making their way up the East Coast, with the goal of completing their 2300 mile trip along the East Coast Greenway in Portland, Maine on July 7th, the International Day of Cooperatives. If all goes well, tomorrow they will be riding the New Haven section of the Farmington Canal Trail, on their way to a rest stop in Southington. You can read the rider bios here. 

Happy Monday, and have a great week. Thanks for reading.

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”