Macaroni and Black Bean Salad

Have you ever noticed how many variety of salads they have at the salad bar of big grocery shops? Well I have. And once I made a grave mistake of buying some. No, don't get me wrong. They were tasty. But super pricey! I came up with this salad when I had some leftover pasta from previous night. It was such a big hit that now I make macaroni for this salad. :o) I have used few of the vegetables when I clicked these pictures. But you could add many more veggies that you like. Some of them that I have tried are, corn and cucumber. Corn especially is the kind that I love.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time : 6 to 7 minutes | Serves : 4
* Serving Size: 1 Cup | Calories:130 | Carbs: 23 | Fat: 3 | Protein: 6 | Sugar: 2 | Sodium: 122

Ingredients:

Elbow Pasta - 3/4 Cup (If leftover cooked pasta - 2 Cups)
Bell Pepper - 1 finely chopped
Cherry tomatoes - 1/2 Cup Chopped
Black Beans - 1 Can
Coriander/ Cilantro - handful
Cayenne Pepper - 1/4 tsp.
Black Pepper - 1/4 tsp.
Lime juice/ red wine Vinegar - 2 tsp.
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Olive Oil - 2 tsp.

Method of Preparation:

~ Make macaroni according to package direction. You would want to cook it 'al dente' and not cook over. Because you really don't want a mushy salad. Drain and immediately rinse with cold water and keep it aside in a colander for all the water to drain.
~ Wash the black beans under running water and drain thoroughly.
~ Now mix all the ingredients with black beans and macaroni.
~ Leave it in the fridge for atleast half an hour before serving.

Disclaimer: Nutrition fact is based on ingredients that I have used and is an approximate. It is calculated using Recipe Nutrition Calculator from a health website.