Cowboy Caviar Salad

Turn Cowboy Caviar into a complete salad with this Cowboy Caviar Salad Recipe. Simply toss in some quinoa and your favorite greens; garnish with avocado and tortilla chips.

What Is Cowboy Caviar?

Cowboy Caviar (or Texas Caviar) is considered to be a salad or a dip. It’s made with corn, black beans, black eyed peas, and a variety of finely chopped veggies. It’s similar to corn salsa or pico de Gallo and can, similarly, be used in a variety of ways. This salad is a flavorful and colorful recipe that’s perfect for summertime picnics, potlucks, or simply weekend snacking.

With this Cowboy Caviar Salad recipe, I’ve added quinoa and arugula to turn it into more of a salad and less of a dip. I find that it’s more filling and it’s a great way to add some healthy greens to your diet.

Cowboy Caviar Ingredients

For full recipe details, please see the recipe card at the end of this post. What follows is just a brief summary of the ingredients and instructions for making Cowboy Caviar Salad.

• Roma tomatoes
• Avocados
• Red onion
• Black beans
• Black eyed peas
• Sweet corn
• Bell pepper
• Jalapeno
• Cilantro

How To Make Cowboy Caviar

1. Chop up veggies – Finely chop tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, and cilantro. 
2. Cut avocado – Cut avocado into small cubes.
3. Combine all salad ingredients into a bowl – Add black beans, corn, black eyed peas, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, avocado, and cilantro to a large mixing bowl.
4. Make dressing – In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and garlic powder.
5. Add dressing to salad – Pour the dressing onto the salad and toss to combine.

Cowboy Caviar Salad Ingredients

• Cowboy Caviar – See my complete recipe for Cowboy Caviar.
• Quinoa
• Arugula
• Avocado
• Tortilla chips – See my recipe for Homemade Tortilla Chips.

How To Make Quinoa

I use white quinoa for this recipe but feel free to use your favorite quinoa.

1. Rinse quinoa – Pour 1 cup of quinoa into a handheld mesh strainer and rinse it under cold water from the faucet. Do this for roughly 30 seconds.
2. Cook quinoa – Pour rinsed quinoa into medium-sized pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low; cover the pot with a lid and allow quinoa to simmer for about 15 minutes without removing the lid.
3. Let cool – Once the quinoa is fully cooked, remove the pot from the heat and set it aside for about 10 minutes.
4. Fluff quinoa – Use a fork to fluff the quinoa.

Assemble The Salad

1. Mix all ingredients together – Place Cowboy Caviar into a large mixing bowl and add cooked quinoa and arugula; toss to combine.
2. Garnish and serve – Garnish with crushed tortilla chips and avocado slices.

Arugula is one of my favorite greens. It works especially well for this recipe because it adds a little spiciness and the leaves are rather hearty so they don’t take away from the already crunchy texture of the salad.

More Vegan Salad Recipes

• Southwest Quinoa Salad
• Taco Salad
• Avocado Tomato Salad
• Shirazi Salad
• Greek Quinoa Salad