If you’ve spent more than a week reading my blog, you already know that I’m seriously into salads. In fact, I’ve proclaimed my love for the salad bar many times, as it’s a great place to try new things and discover new flavor combinations.

This Spicy Mexican Chopped one of my favorite summer salads. Yeah yeah, I know — it’s not summer yet. But pretending that it is and making summer-inspired recipes can’t hurt, right? This salad is great topped with grilled chicken or fish, but I thought it would be fun to add crab meat this time — something a bit sweet to balance out the spice from the cumin and jalapeno. The salad itself (sans crab) is great for picnics and summer parties as it doesn’t have any mayo, cheese or other heat and sun-averse ingredients, plus fresh veggies are always better in the summer anyway — especially corn!

So summer, if you could please make your appearance now, I’d be very grateful. Until then, I’ll continue making this salad. XOXO.

Spicy Mexican Chopped Salad with Crab (makes four meal-sized salads)

What you need:

• The juice of one lime
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin
• 15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups of frozen corn (or fresh if you’re lucky enough to have it available this time of year), thawed
• 1/2 a jalapeno, seeded and chopped into small pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into chunks
• 1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped into chunks
• 9 ounce bag of baby spinach
• 8 ounces of lump crab meat
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

How you do it:

1. In a large bowl, combine lime juice and cumin. Whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. To the same bowl, add the beans, corn, jalapeno, bell pepper and tomato. Toss to combine. (I like letting this mixture marinate overnight for added flavor, but that’s completely optional.)
3. Before serving, toss the spinach with the veggie and dressing mixture. Divide evenly into four portions. Top each with the crab meat and a grind or two of freshly cracked black pepper.