Random Food Fridays - Sweet Potato and Adzuki Bean Salad

Here's another crazy salad for your consideration. I often visit the farmers' market on Sunday mornings and then spend much of the afternoon preparing food for the week. My go-to lunches are salads in Summer and soups in the cooler months. With soups and salads there are no limits. You've seen plenty of salads if you check this little blog on Fridays. This salad came on a Sunday when I didn't make it to the market. I foraged in my fridge and pantry for likely pairings and boom! Salad!

Adzuki beans are little dark red beans that are slightly sweet. They are often used in Japanese desserts. I've had sweet bean paste in mochi and whole sweet beans in shave ice and in chilled fruit salad. You might think sweet beans are weird, but think about baked beans - they are sweet and delicious. I also chose to use adzuki beans because they are small and don't take as long to cook as larger beans.

I started with 1 cup of dried beans and ended up with about two cups cooked. Not all the beans got used in this recipe. I used about 1 1/2 cups, similar to what you would find in a can of beans. You can use any kind of bean you like.

Sweet Potato and Adzuki Bean Salad
1 medium sweet potato (about 1 lb)
1 large, ripe tomato, cored and diced
1 small red pepper, cored and diced
1 carrot, diced
1 shallot, peeled and diced
2 ears sweet corn (I had leftovers from the grill), cut from the ears
1 big hand full chopped parsley
1 1/2 cup cooked and drained adzuki beans
white wine vinaigrette*
hot sauce, if desired (I like Tapatio!)

To cook the sweet potato, peel and dice into about 1/2 inch chunks. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the sweet potatoes. Cook until just fork-tender. Do not over cook. Drain and rinse with cool water.

Toss all the veggies and beans together and add vinaigrette to taste. Add hot sauce, if desired.

Makes 4 lunches for me.

*White Wine Vinaigrette
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. country style Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. garlic and herb seasoning

Add all ingredients to a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake like crazy.