Black Bean, Roasted Corn and Orange Salad

This is an excellent recipe
What is great about it, is that it can be made ahead. I love those kind of recipes. It is a little more work, but well worth it. I cut the recipe in half.
Read my comments on the bottom before making this recipe.

Black Bean, Roasted Corn and Orange Salad:

3 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained well. I use the black beans that have 10 milligrams of sodium.
6 ears of corn removed from cob, or frozen corn thawed.
1/2 large red onion, diced finely
30 grape or cherry tomatoes washed and cut in half
3 large navel oranges zested-reserve zest for the dressing, and cut oranges in bite size sections, removing pith and membranes
Several handful baby spinach

Directions:
1-Mix corn in glass pan with just a touch 0f oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes stirring a couple of times
2-While corn is roasting, in a bowl, mix, beans onion, tomatoes, and navel oranges.
3- Add cooled corn to black bean mixture.
Drizzle
4-Serve individually on a bed of baby spinach
5-Sprinkle with pecans


Dressing:

Vegan Cumin-Citrus Salad Dressing:

1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons light colored vinegar- I used Rice Vinegar
zest from 3 oranges
1-2 teaspoons spicy chili sauce
4-5 clove garlics
1 teaspoon ground cumin
small handful fresh cilantro
about 1/2 handful fresh mint
salt to taste
black pepper
Process in food processor until well blended.

Sweet and Spicy Paprika Pecans

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon Vegan butter-I used Earth Balance in the stick-4 in a pkg.
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 teaspoon paprika
salt to taste
1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While oven heats place oil and butter in large metal roasting pan, place in oven until butter melts. Remove from oven, stir in pecans. Stir until well coated. Sprinkle with sugar,paprika and salt.
2-Return to oven and roast for about 10 minutes more, stirring once or twice.
3-Remove from oven, if need more seasonings add while still warm. Cool to room temperature and store in tight container.

Notes from Verna's test kitchen.

1-I roasted the corn at 425 degrees between 15-30 minutes. Took forever at 400 degrees. Make sure to stir frequently, especially the last 15 minutes so they don't burn. I personally like them a little charred. (If you never had roasted corn before, you are in for a treat. )
2-Go easy with the oil on the corn or it gets way to greasy.
3-For the dressing I used 1/4 cup of oil and I felt it was still too much. Next time I would use 1/8 cup. I did not put any salt in the dressing. After making the dressing, I put it in a glass pint jar, covered, and refrigerated until ready to serve.
4-Putting the pecans in the oven was way too much work. I did them on the stove top in a dutch oven. (The reason for the dutch oven is I tripled the pecans to use in other salads) After they were cooled down I put them in a freezer bag and froze them. You do not want to leave nuts out, as they have oil in them and will attract bugs, especially in this humidity.
I did not use sugar, I put honey on the pecans, cause I wanted them to get like candy. Agave Nectar would work also.
II did not use any salt on the pecans. Next time I would like to try the smoke paprika. ( when these are all used up, I will give that a try.

Enjoy this recipe.

Have a super day.

Comments appreciated.