OH MAN.

If you happen to have a ripe mango and a bunch of cilantro hanging out in your refrigerator, this is perhaps the best possible use for them. I made a double portion, planning on leftovers, and instead ended up eating four full bowls, resulting in zero leftovers. It was that good.

This is also an ideal use for leftover quinoa and/or black beans. Of course, you can go ahead and cook them on the spot if you want, but plan ahead, since boiling beans from scratch requires an overnight soak.

Black bean, quinoa, and mango salad

cooked black beans
cooked quinoa
mango
scallion (purple in my case)
jalapeño
cilantro
red wine vinegar
neutral oil
salt

Essentially, we're going to mix everything together, then eat it. Sounds good?

Mix roughly equal amounts of drained black beans and quinoa in a large bowl. I probably used about a cup and a half of each.

Peel a mango, cut it off its pit, cube it, and add it to the bowl. It's easiest to cut one big slice off either side of the pit, and then trim the remaining bits of fruit away. I tried to make my mango cubes about the same size as the black beans, for optimal texture in the finished product.

Trim and slice up a scallion. If you like spice, finely dice a jalapeño (or some proportion of one). Chop up a couple big handfuls of fresh cilantro. Add all of these to the bowl.

Scatter a little salt over your salad. Add a tablespoon or so of red wine vinegar and one of a flavorless oil; I had canola, which worked fine.

Mix everything together and let your completed salad amalgamate for a while. A half hour or so should be plenty of time, which is good, because you will want to eat this all immediately. I actually left the house so as not to eat mine right away.

Once you've stretched your willpower far enough, get yourself a bowl and eat that salad.

Makes one large serving all for me.

I mean, makes four salad servings, or two complete dinner servings. Yes.