Black Bean, Mango and Apple Salad with Maple Butter-Sriracha Lemon Dressing

Most of my Sunday afternoons now have gone back to routine as it was before, that is preparing a few meals ahead of time for the week. Since I cook all my meals from scratch, a bit of preparation during the weekend saves some precious time during the week and mostly help in staying on the healthy-eating side.

While I don't like cutting up vegetables in advance because I believe they lose valuable nutrients and vitamins when being cut into pieces and stored, I do however make things like boiling big batches of dried beans, quinoa, lentils, dal etc for the week.

Most of my lunches are tasty salads, not only because they are quick and easy to make just the night before, but also because I can then considerably reduce my gluten intake. If I am having a big salad with some filling protein like beans or lentils, I don't usually have the need to go for any bread or other gluten-based carbohydrate.

I don't have any intolerance to gluten but I have heard so much about its not-so-good effect on the body that I decided to try a low-gluten diet for myself and see if I notice any difference. After 2 weeks, I did feel a lot different, much lighter and far less bloated. So, I am sticking to this low gluten diet for a while with some occasional cake / bread or pasta but not as much as before.

So, my newest bean salad that I've enjoyed today is this Black Bean, Mango and Apple Salad that I dressed with maple butter, sriracha and lemon juice. It was really tasty, I enjoyed the medley of flavours.
You can substitute maple butter with maple syrup or other natural sweetener of choice.

This is not really a recipe but just take it as a guide and customize with what you have on hand.

Ingredients
1/2 cup boiled black beans
1//3 mango, peeled and diced
1/2 apple, peeled and diced
1/3 pepper (orange or any other color), diced
Handful of chopped coriander

Dressing
1/2 teaspoon maple butter (or 1 tablespoon maple syrup)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sriracha (or hot chilli sauce)

Mix all salad ingredients together, keep in a tupperware or glassware until ready to serve. Mix dressing ingredients separately and keep in a small container. Add dressing about 10 minutes before serving.

I didn't add any salt as the flavours were just right and didn't require any but adjust to your taste.