Guy Fieri's 2 Pro Tips For Black Bean Salad Create The Perfect Bite

Hearty and zingy, the citrus-y vibe of a satisfying bean salad is perfect for scooping up with a bag of tortilla chips or serving alongside sticky blackened chicken. However, if your last batch of this vibrant salad didn't quite hit the mark, we've got a couple of pro tips that we've judiciously borrowed from TV chef Guy Fieri. As revealed on Food Network's "Tournament of Champions," via YouTube, the restaurateur and cookbook author always begins with dried black beans (versus canned) and chops every vegetable into a uniform shape to create the perfect bite.

Fieri doesn't like taking shortcuts in the kitchen and cooks everything from scratch, which is why he advises starting with dried black beans. While canned legumes are a quick and convenient option, dried beans triumph when it comes to a bolder flavor and texture. Firstly, you can cook them to your liking — you might prefer to boil or pressure cook your beans until toothsome and firm or opt to simmer them a little longer for a creamier texture. Secondly, the taste of beans that have been boiled at home, versus those that have been sitting in a can on a grocery store shelf for months, is fresher and more complex, particularly if you cook your beans in a broth or herby liquor. Boiling black beans can take anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours, depending on how you like them, so take the extra cooking time into consideration.

A typical black bean salad contains a mixture of herbs and fresh veggies, like tomatoes, sweetcorn, and avocado, that are dressed in a lime vinaigrette. However, there's plenty of bandwidth for flexibility here, so feel free to add in chopped potatoes, jalapeños, or green beans. Fieri dices these ingredients up into identical bite-sized pieces to guarantee that every spoonful of salad is balanced and alike. Chopping pungent aromatics, like red onion, into smaller, matching nuggets also ensures each bite of salad isn't overtly harsh on the palate. An effortless way to mellow out a black bean salad that's heavy on the allium is to allow it to marinate for a few hours in the fridge. This move takes the edge off any biting undertones, lets all the flavors in the punchy dressing marry together, and gives the beans plenty of time to imbibe all those tasty citrus-y juices.

As a bean salad doesn't contain leafy greens that wilt in a high-moisture environment, it can sit in the fridge happily for three to four days (if you want to make it advance, hold back on the avocado and add it in moments before serving so it doesn't oxidize and turn brown). Boiling your own black beans means you might be lucky enough to have plenty of leftovers to use in other imaginative ways. A couple of quick recipes that put black beans in the spotlight are spicy black bean dip and baked black bean flautas