Squash, Corn, Black Bean Salad (Three Sisters Salad)
Nutritionally, when eaten together, corn, beans and squash provide all of the essential amino acids needed to make a complete protein. Corn provides the carbohydrates and complementary amino acids to the beans, dried beans are rich in protein and the squash provides additional vitamins and healthy oils from the seeds.
In Native American culture, the story of The Three Sisters explains the interconnectivity of squash, beans and corn. The symbiotic relationship is both physical and spiritual.
When grown together beans, corn, and squash work together to create the best possible environment to thrive. It is said that the beans impart nitrogen for the corn to grown, the corn stalks offer climbing bean vines a trellis to ascend, while squash leaves provide shade, keeping the soil hydrated and preventing weeds.
From the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, “To the Iroquois people, corn, beans, and squash are the Three Sisters, the physical and spiritual sustainers of life. These life-supporting plants were given to the people when all three miraculously sprouted from the body of Sky Woman’s daughter, granting the gift of agriculture to the Iroquois nations.”
Squash, Corn, Black Bean Salad (Three Sisters Salad)
Ingredients
- 900 g thin-skinned squash such as koginut kabocha, butternut or delicate, washed, deseeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- sea salt and black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- 300 g frozen corn
- 2 (15-ounce / 425g) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- handful coriander/cilantro leaves
- 45 g toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
Spicy green yoghurt
- 200 g coconut, unsweetened non dairy or Greek yoghurt
- 30 g cilantro/coriander (leaves and stems), roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- ½ to 1 jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon lime zest (from 1 lime)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice (from 1 lime)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt and black pepper
