Cowboy Caviar

This Cowboy Caviar (aka Texas Caviar) is a fresh, colorful bean salad packed with black-eyed peas, corn, tomatoes, avocado and a zesty lime dressing. It’s quick to make, easy to prepare ahead of time and versatile enough to serve as a dip with tortilla chips, a cookout side dish or a topping for tacos and grilled proteins.

What is cowboy caviar?

Cowboy caviar, originally known as Texas caviar, was created in the early 1940's by chef and dietitian Helen Corbitt. While teaching at the University of Texas in Austin, Corbitt was challenged to prepare a meal using Texas ingredients.

She dressed local black-eyed peas with oil, vinegar, garlic and onion, transforming the humble legume into a simple marinated salad. Corbitt later became the celebrated food service director at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, helping the dish become closely associated with the store.

While the original version was fairly simple, today’s colorful versions often include more vegetables, like corn, tomatoes, peppers and avocado.

Our version is packed with all of the above, plus a zesty lime vinaigrette spiced with chili powder, cumin and garlic powder. We also like to add in a bit of cotija cheese for extra saltiness, which is totally optional, but tastes great!

I love that this salad tastes just as good (if not better) after a few days in the fridge, and it's great for meal prep. It's filling, packed with fiber, and definitely gets in several servings of vegetables.

Key Ingredients Needed for Cowboy Caviar

• Black-eyed peas: You can find canned black-eyed peas at most grocery stores. If you can't find any, feel free to use black beans instead. You can also use a combination of black beans and black-eyed peas.
• Tomatoes: We like to use cherry tomatoes, but roma tomatoes will work well, too. Drain out some of the liquid or pat them dry so they don't make the salad too soupy.
• Jalapeño: 2 jalapeños sounds like a lot, but this makes such a large volume of salad that you don't get much spice. However, if you're sensitive to spice, feel free to leave it out.
• Corn: Fresh or frozen both work, just make sure to cook the kernels before adding.

How to Make Cowboy Caviar

1. Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a skillet over medium heat, then add the corn kernels with a small pinch of salt. Sauté for 5-6 minutes, until softened and lightly browned. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Finely dice all of the vegetables so they're roughly the same size. Optional: if you're not a big fan of raw onion, place the diced onion in a colander and run it under hot water for 30 seconds and then cold water for 30 seconds. This helps take out some of the 'bite'. 
3. Whisk together all of the vinaigrette ingredients until well combined. 

4. Add all salad ingredients to a large bowl and pour dressing over the top. Mix until everything is well incorporated. Enjoy right away, or refrigerate for an hour before serving to let the flavors develop. It tastes even better the next day!

Top Tips from the CK Test Kitchen!

• Remove as much moisture from the vegetables/beans as possible. This will keep your salad from getting too soupy! For the beans, we transfer them to paper towel after rinsing with water to remove excess moisture. For the tomatoes, we add the diced tomatoes to a colander with a pinch of salt, give it a stir and set it over a bowl while we prep the other ingredients. After 10 minutes or so, they will release quite a bit of juice. Discard the juice before adding the tomatoes to the salad.
• Storage: Keep this stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. Give it a good stir again before serving.
• Wait to add avocado if you're not serving right away. I don't usually have any issues with it going brown in this salad since it's tossed in a vinaigrette, but if you're worried about it, just wait to add the avocado until just before eating.

More Bean Salads You'll Love

We can't wait for you to make this Cowboy Caviar in your own home! If you do, be sure to let us know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo and tag @crowded_kitchen on Instagram. We can't wait to see what you're cooking!

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