Pinto Bean and Veggie Salad

The heat of summer makes me want to go easy on the heavy cooking and concentrate on grilling and salads.

Of course, it also makes me want to skip dinner completely and just eat dessert.

Last weekend Tim and I went camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. While we were there, I ate my weight in s’mores. (And hot dogs) My justification for eating all those s’mores was that I had earned the extra calories while we hiked miles and climbed a zillion stairs at light houses and waterfalls.

This is our before picture. Don’t we look relaxed and happy? Then we hiked 5 miles through the woods to the other falls. The after picture is us looking exhausted and not being able to stand after climbing so much. Thank goodness there was a shuttle to take us back to our car.

So pretty. It makes all the stairs we climbed worth it.

Now that we are back in the real world I needed something healthy & fresh tasting, not roasted on a fire and covered in chocolate.

I seriously ate more s’mores that weekend than ever in my life. I usually prefer just the marshmallows. Charred. But this summer I’ve had a taste for s’mores and I couldn’t get enough while we camped. It was a real problem.

Lucky for me, lots of stuff is in season right now and I have lots of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and green onions ready to go in my garden. I do enjoy a good salad and it seems to have cured me of my s’mores hang over.

For now at least, but, we are camping again soon. The s’mores will call to me again when we do. (Hershey’s Dark bars are much tastier than regular old Hershey’s for the s’mores, by the way.)

As for this salad (which I should have called the s’more remedy salad), it’s more of a serving suggestion than an actual recipe. It’s highly adaptable. A good jumping off point for lots of salad variations. Add or subtract whatever you like.

Pinto Bean and Veggie Salad

2 cups pinto beans (cooked and cooled, or canned, drained and rinsed)

1 large tomato, diced

1 small cucumber, chopped

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1 small avocado, peeled and diced

A few sprigs of fresh mint, finely chopped

juice of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp curry powder

Mix all the ingredients well and allow to chill in the fridge for several hours. Stir again and serve.