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Texas Caviar is a tangy and refreshing dip packed with wholesome veggies, beans, and lentils. Perfect to scoop up with your tortilla chips!
Your Tortilla Chips Have a New Best Friend: Texas Caviar.
Pico de gallo is great and guacamole is amazing. But when I see a bowl of Texas Caviar at an event, I hover over it for a while. It’s just flat-out addicting. Every bite offers up a refreshing and tangy crunch, thanks to the fresh veggies and the apple cider vinegar-based dressing. Not to mention it’s full of lentils and beans, so hello fiber!
What Is Texas Caviar?
Bean salad, Cowboy Caviar… these are just a few other names that have been given to this incredible medley. Here’s the gist of it. Texas Caviar is basically a salad made up of beans—black-eyed peas originally, but I use black beans here—and an apple cider vinaigrette that lightly pickles the ingredients. As a result, this will last in the fridge for up to three weeks! (But you’ll devour it all well before then.) The name is just a playful poke at true expensive caviar, which is served with crackers as an hors d’oeuvre.
Here’s the List of Healthy Ingredients.
My favorite thing about this Texas Caviar, aside from it being a total flavor bomb, is that it’s nutritious. Check out the ingredients list and you’ll see what I mean:
- Red bell pepper
- Green bell pepper
- Vidalia onion (you could use any onion, but I prefer vidalia for its sweetness)
- Celery
- Frozen corn
- Can of lentils
- Can of black beans
- Apple cider vinegar
- Sugar (you could also sub honey, agave nectar, or monkfruit sweetener)
- Extra virgin olive oil
Here’s How to Make Texas Caviar.
This recipe is so unfussy. It’s really just a matter of chopping things and throwing them all together. The dressing is super simple, too. Here’s what you’ll do:
- Place all of your chopped veggies into a large mixing bowl with the corn and beans; set it aside.
- Get yourself a small saucepan. Add the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, water, and sugar to it. Bring it to a boil and let it go for about a minute, or until the sugar has fully disintegrated.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the liquid sit to cool.
- Once the liquid is at room temperature, poor it over the veggies and beans and, using a spatula or a large spoon, carefully stir everything.
- Pop it in the fridge until it’s time to serve! See my recipe tips and tricks below.
Useful Tools for This Recipe:
Recipe Tips + Tricks:
- Make this recipe a day ahead so that the flavors can set—it’ll be much tastier!
- Instead of using sugar, you can swap in honey, agave nectar, or monkfruit sweetener.
- Feel free to substitute black-eyed peas or any other beans in place of black beans.
- I use canned lentils and beans for efficiency, but you can soak and cook your own if you prefer.
- This Texas Caviar will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks!
Have You Made This Recipe?
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Here Are Some More Tasty Appetizers You’ll Love:
- Citrus Avocado and Mackerel Salad
- Healthy Crab Meat Salad with Lime
- Easy Homemade Baba Ganoush
- Homemade Hummus
Texas Caviar
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper, diced, You could also use orange or yellow bell pepper; they are sweeter than green and give off a nice pop of color.
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 large vidalia onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup diced celery (about 3 ribs of celery)
- 1 cup frozen corn, The corn will thaw quickly
- 2 cans lentils, drained (about 2 cups of cooked lentils)
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing.
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 TBSP water
Instructions
- Place the chopped vegetables, corn, lentils, and beans into a large mixing bowl; set it aside.
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat, and add the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, water, and sugar to it. Whisk the liquid and bring it to a boil. Let it boil for about a minute, or until the sugar has fully disintegrated, whisking occasionally.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it sit to cool.
- When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, poor it over the veggies and beans and carefully stir using a spatula or a large spoon.
- Cover and refrigerate until it’s time to serve. I do recommend making this a day ahead so that the flavors set—the longer it sits, the tastier it is!
- Serve with tortilla chips—I especially like to serve this with scoop-type chips.
Oh yum! Pass me a chip because I want to dig in right now. ;) Looks amazing!
So colorful and so good for you too! Amazing with corn chips.
I love Texas Caviar…and this version with the apple cider dressing was fantastic!
Seriously the best salad ever invented!!
One of my go-to options when headed to a potluck! *chefs kiss*
I forgot to add the 5* rating! Lol
Haha thank you! You’re the best! So glad you still love this one after all these years.
I am loving all of these colors and flavors! Definitely making for our next cookout!
I could easily make a meal of this! What a refreshing and satisfying summer recipe. Perfect for easy, light evenings when it’s too hot to cook.
This was amazing and such a treat! Thank you! Everyone in my family loved it.
This is a perfect appetizer will be the hit at my next game day party!
Beautiful colors of all the good veggies here! Great side dish with my baked chicken. I’m glad this can last long in the fridge too.