I’ve been enjoying playing around with various non-tomato salsas recently. My favorite is probably still the mango or peach salsa I’ve written up before. The grape and cucumber salsa was also delicious.

My parents came down for a visit over the weekend and one night I cooked up some pork tenderloin with my favorite bourbon marinade. Looking for a light side dish, I found a cucumber, mango, and black bean “salad” in the recent issue of Cooking Light. I had most, but not all, of the ingredients. I didn’t have any orange juice, so used some lemon juice instead. I was also mostly out of cilantro unfortunately. The patch in my garden has gone to seed with this heat, although I managed to salvage a few small leaves. I’m guessing they are calling it a salad because of the black beans, but with fruit and jalapenos it sure seems like a salsa to me. It went great with the barbecued pork and kept well for leftovers the next day.

1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped mango
1 14.5 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 Tbs minced jalapeno (or more to taste)
1 Tbs (or more) chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs lemon juice (or orange juice)
1/2 tsp salt

As with any salsa, these measurements are to give you a starting point only. If the cucumber or mangoes you have add up to a bit less or more, just use it and taste and adjust seasonings if need be. In fact, the original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of black beans, but I just used the whole can.