I always start with chopping up tomato. I’m not sure why, but I do. I learned a neat trick how to efficiently dice a tomato when I spent summer living with my aunt and uncle in Georgia (If you’re reading this “Hi guys!”). Take your tomato and cut it in half. With the inside facing up, make downward “almost completely through but stopping right before the end” slices in one direction, flip the tomato 90 degrees and make slices again in the other direction so that it looks like a grid or graph paper. Then place the tomato on its side and cut all the way through. You’ll notice they’ll end up in little cubes. Neat huh? I also cut tomatoes for recipes like our Classic Bruschetta and Tomato Basil Pasta with Chicken. Moving on…

Then I add the black beans (it gives you a break from chopping). After opening the can (probably with a can opener, but ya know) I wash the beans to get that weird goop off of them and toss them in a big bowl along with your tomatoes.

Corn. So there are a few ways to go about adding corn. Here’s my advice: Frozen (follow the label. Delicious. We use it most every time), Canned (NEVER USE IT- it has a weird taste), Fresh (go you! Win for the home team) prepare your fresh corn by boiling in salt water and slice the kernels off the cob.

Add in your black beans and corn to your tomatoes. Time to chop again. Take your bell pepper (or bell peppers, we tend to use two) and dice it to bits about the size of your tomato slices. I have yet to find a crazy efficient way to cut these up, so if you’ve got one send us a message using our contact form. At this time you can also chop your jalapeño. I recommend finely chopping this one, and wash your hands after … too many a time have I wiped my eyes with jalapeño fingers—not fun. Add these ingredients to your bowl.

Cilantro and green onion are next to slice up. Cilantro should be cut finely. Its awkward to take a bite of salsa with a huge chunk of leaf in it. For the green onion, take your stalk and chop off the rooted end but try to keep as much of the white as you can. From that point cut slivers of circles all the way up to the half way point of the stalk (then further up you go the less flavor there is). Add these ingredients to your bowl.

Lime. This one is easy. Slice your lime in half and squeeze the juices of one of the halves over your black bean corn salsa. Add your salt, pepper, and other spices to your mix and WHABAM. You just made black bean corn salsa, my friend.