Texas Caviar

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:

1. Place all of your chopped veggies into a large mixing bowl with the corn and beans; set it aside.
2. 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.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the liquid sit to cool.
4. 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.
5. Pop it in the fridge until it’s time to serve! See my recipe tips and tricks below.

Useful Tools for This Recipe:

• Sharp knife
• Cutting Board
• Saucepans
• Mixing bowl
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Spatula or Spoon
• Whisk

Recipe Tips + Tricks:

1. Make this recipe a day ahead so that the flavors can set—it’ll be much tastier!
2. Instead of using sugar, you can swap in honey, agave nectar, or monkfruit sweetener.
3. Feel free to substitute black-eyed peas or any other beans in place of black beans.
4. I use canned lentils and beans for efficiency, but you can soak and cook your own if you prefer.
5. 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

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5 from 16 votes

Texas Caviar

By: Dana Sandonato

Texas Caviar is a tangy and refreshing dip packed with wholesome veggies, beans, and lentils. Perfect to scoop up with your tortilla chips!

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

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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

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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.

Notes

Calculating servings for this dish is a tough one, but trust me, this will feed a crowd as an appetizer served along other appetizers!

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