Beans 'n' Greens

As a Southern cook, I typically add collard greens or kale to my slow-simmered beans. But tonight, I had both beans and greens cooked separately and enjoyed in the form of salads.

This Tropical Three Bean Salad from Blissful Bites was hearty, healthy, and easy as pie to prepare:

There's kidney beans, white beans, and chickpeas, all cooked from dried beans. Then they're cooled and mixed with tomato, mango, cumin, lime, and avocado. It's super summer-y, even though summer is nearly over. But it's back in the 80s here, so I'm holding out with warm weather foods as long as I can.

On the side, I made another uber-healthy dish from Blissful Bites — Kale Salad with Coconut Curry Sauce:

The kale is blanched with carrots and radishes, and that's all mixed with rehydrated arame. Okay, I actually used hijiki, but they look almost exactly the same. Arame was, like, $7 a bag at Whole Foods, and I already had hijiki in my pantry. A sea veggie is a sea veggie, in my opinion, so I think it's a fine substitution.

The salad veggies are coated with a creamy coconut curry sauce that's made from coconut milk, curry powder, peanut butter, and miso. OMG! I really could have just eaten the sauce out of the blender with a spoon, but I suppose it's healthier when mixed with the kale and hijiki.

What summer salads will you miss the most as the seasons change?