Steal of the Week: Black Bean and Mango Salsa

A dear friend of mine came for a visit and of course I wanted to cook some yummy stuff for her! We have the same likes and when I saw that mangoes were on sale at the local grocery store for $1 a piece, I immediately thought about making mango salsa. I found a pretty good recipe in my trusty The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook ( I also recommend Best of America's Test Kitchen: The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews.) The fact that it also called for black beans and I was sold. Of course I made modifications as I always do. In this case I omitted the pineapple juice (I have NEVER had a mango salsa with pineapple juice)and replaced it with red wine vinegar and I omitted the jalapeno and replaced it with cayenne.

Black Bean and Mango Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 - 15.5 oz can black beans, rinsed
  
• 1 - mango, peeled, pitted, chopped fine
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine
  
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
  
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  
• To taste sugar, salt and pepper
  

Combine all of the ingredients, seasoning at the end with a little sugar (I probably used about 1/4 teaspoon) and fresh ground pepper and Kosher salt to taste. The result was sweet and spicy and delicious. I served it with the spicy grilled shrimp and basmati rice and the next day we were eating leftovers of it right out out of the bowl with tortilla chips!