Polish 'Mexican' salad: red beans, sweetcorn, peppers and a garlic dressing, no cooking
It shares only the beans and corn with Mexico, but it has been a fixture of Polish parties for years: canned red kidney beans and sweetcorn, peppers in two colours, red onion, pickled cucumber and a dressing of mayonnaise with yogurt and garlic. Twenty minutes of work, no cooking, six servings. With chicken it becomes a meal; without, it is vegetarian.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Chopping 15 min
- Dressing 5 min
- Resting 30 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneDrain the beans and corn
Tip the beans and corn into a sieve, rinse under cold water and leave to drain 5 minutes. Rinsing washes off the thick canning liquid that would turn the dressing grey and cloudy.
Ingredients: 2 pcs canned red kidney beans · 340 g tinned sweetcorn · 2 pcs red and yellow peppers · 1 pcs red onion · 4 pcs sweet-and-sour pickled cucumbers · 1 bunch chives
TipCanned beans can be soft. If you have time, soak 200 g dried red kidney beans overnight and cook until tender (about 1–1½ hours), the first 10 minutes at a hard boil: raw or undercooked red kidney beans are toxic. They come out firmer and tastier.
Rinsed, drainedChop the vegetables
Deseed the peppers and dice into 1 cm pieces, about the size of a bean, so everything fits in one bite. Chop the onion finely, dice the pickles and squeeze them. Scald a sharp onion with boiling water in a sieve and cool.
Dice the size of a beanMake the dressing
Stir the mayonnaise with the yogurt, crushed garlic, lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper. The dressing should be clearly garlicky and slightly sharp: beans and corn are sweet and need a counterweight.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp mayonnaise · 4 tbsp natural yogurt · 2 cloves garlic · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp sweet paprika · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Mayonnaise, yogurt, garlic, lemonMix
Combine the beans, corn, peppers, onion and pickles with the dressing, folding gently from the bottom so the beans don't crush. Add half the chives.
Gently, from the bottomChill and serve
Refrigerate 30 minutes. Taste: add salt, lemon or garlic. Sprinkle with the rest of the chives. With tortilla chips, bread or as a barbecue side. It keeps 2 days in the fridge; the pepper softens on the second day, but the flavour stays.
After half an hour, with chives
Before you start
With chicken
400 g chicken breast in strips, fried with a teaspoon of sweet paprika, a pinch of hot and salt, cooled and folded in: the salad becomes supper.
Lighter, without mayonnaise
A dressing of 3 spoons of olive oil, the juice of a whole lime, garlic, a teaspoon of honey and a handful of chopped coriander: closer to Mexican flavours, fresher.
Spicy
Half a small chilli finely chopped, or a teaspoon of hot paprika in the dressing. The rest unchanged.
