my cilantro conversion

It started with jengadda's quinoa and black bean salad, or maybe MH's salsa and general predilection for cooking kickass Mexican cuisine. It has surprised me completely. But somewhere in the last week or so, I have discovered that I actually want to cook with cilantro. Cilantro used to be on the no-go list, along with:

- wintergreen flavored things
- black licorice/strong aniseseed
- sardines, anchovies, and other small oily fish
- broccoli without cheese or Chinese food sauces
- fennel in both bulb and seed form

But it's coming off, folks, it's coming off the list. Apparently we cilantro-haters think it tastes like soap because, well, it does smell kind of like soap. We all share the same "agh I must spit this out NOW" reaction due to common chemicals, which is apparently quite natural. But we also can, apparently, re-program our brains to like it! I'm satisfied with that. Thanks for the timely scientific vindication, Times.

Because spring weather makes me want to cook things (so does being able to taste food for the first time in two weeks, thankyouverymuch, nasty flu), it is time for salads. Grain salads, bean salads, big crazy tossed Greek salads. And so I need to introduce you to my new favorite thing, if the flavors come together overnight like I think they will...


Cilantro Three-Bean Salad

* 1/2 cup cider vinegar
* 3 tablespoon olive oil
* 2 teaspoon brown sugar (packed)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper,
* 1 can chickpeas
* 1 can white beans (I used Cannellini)
* 1 package lima beans**
* 3 medium carrot
* 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped very fine (more for garnish if that's how you roll)
* 1 jalapeno pepper

Let the lima beans defrost while you chop and rinse everything else. Whisk the first five ingredients together, and toss in the carrots, three beans, and cilantro. Add jalapeno here, too. Let sit for at least 2 hours, or overnight, give it a stir, and whammo. Bean salad joy.

I somehow managed to make it home without the jalapeno pepper I had in my shopping basket, so I improved with some habanero hot sauce mixed in with a little extra vinegar to let it make its way through the salad better. It is very promisingly yummy...I'm not saying I didn't have to chop the cilantro extra fast because the smell of the big bunch of it got to me, momentarily, but I shook through it.

This, in addition to the fabulous cucumber salad that I will claim I invented, could feed me for the entire summer. No, wait, add gazpacho. And whatever else I manage to grill. Corn and tomato salad! YES.

Now, to find the special kind of sheep/goat cheese that they use to stuff peppadew peppers in the Turkish markets in Germany, and I'll have it made. Oh, food nostalgia. You're the reason I would spend all my money traveling if I could.


** lima beans in cold food are a seriously powerful secret weapon. I never ate them growing up -- ever, which means my parents must both hate them -- but you add some herbs and dressing, and they are awesome. I thank the Lee Brothers for that, though.