Chopped Mexican Salad with Roasted Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes & Avocado

I found this recipe in a Fine Cooking Fresh magazine from 2008.  Nothing needed to be adjust for gluten/dairy free diet and it tastes amazing!  This is salad is a great side salad to any grilled meat.  We've served it with ribs but it could also be used as an appetizer and eaten with tortilla chips.  Even my 8 year old gobbled this up!

Make sure you give yourself some time, the corn and peppers need to roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
2 large orange peppers
2 ears fresh corn (you can used canned corn if you are short on time)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic
3 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp orange juice
2 tsp finely chopped shallot
1 Tbsp honey
3/4 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground (I just just used cumin powder)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large firm ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded and cut into a small dice
1 small jicama, peeled and cut into small dice (I left this out b/c the jicama I bought tasted off, would add next time)
2 large firm ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and cut into a small dice
1 can 15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Roast the peppers and corn:  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove the stem, seed core, and ribs.  Put the pepper halves on the baking sheet, cut side down.  Husk the corn and put the ears on the baking sheet.  Drizzle the oil over the peppers and corn and rub it around to coat them evenly.  Sprinkle the corn with salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven until the peppers are soft, slightly shriveled and browned, about 20 minutes.  Rotate the corn occasionally as it roasts.

When the vegetables are done, let them rest until cool enough to handle.  Scrape away the pepper skin and cut the flesh into 1/2 inch dice.  Cut the corn kernels away from the cob.

Make the vinaigrette:  Mince and mash the garlic to a paste with 1/4 tsp salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk the garlic paste with the lime and orange juices, shallot, honey and toasted ground cumin.  Slowly add the oil in a thin stream, whisking until well blended.  Season to taste with black pepper and more salt and honey if you like.

Assemble the salad:  Place peppers, corn, tomatoes, jicama, avocados, and place beans in a small platter or other wide shallow serving dish.  Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro.  You can allow each guest to pour the vinaigrette on their own plate or drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad platter before serving, which is what I did.