Summer Confetti Salad

This Summer Confetti Salad is a refreshing summer salad recipe. Also called Cowboy Caviar, this recipe is a great side dish or appetizer when served with chips.

We enjoy the fresh flavors of this recipe all year long, but it’s especially satisfying during those hot summer months. This dish is quick and easy to make–which makes it a great addition to summer BBQs and pool parties.

Where’s the recipe?

Here at My Crazy Good Life, we give you two options for making every recipe. If you’re new to the kitchen or would like some extra information about this recipe and the ingredients used, read through the post below before heading to the printable recipe. It will give you information about the ingredients, details about how to make the recipe, and a ton of recipe tips. We even include healthy eating plan information for the top diet plans.

If you’d rather get straight to the point, scroll down to the printable recipe area where you’ll find the short and sweet version of how to make this Summer Confetti Salad.

Ingredients in Summer Confetti Salad

• Bell Pepper: I prefer to use green and red bell pepper in this recipe, but you can use whatever you have in your fridge. Green bell peppers have the most flavor, and the others are all fairly mild. When I have a variety of peppers in the fridge, I love to use a mixture of red, gree, yellow, and orange bell pepper.
• Tomato: I love tomatoes and their seeds. If you’d rather have a drier salad, go ahead and use a tomato with less seeds like roma.
• Green onion: I love the mild flavor this adds. If you don’t have any green onions, you can use a regular one–preferably a red onion.
• Fresh Cilantro: If you’re not a fan, you can easily skip this ingredient.
• Corn: You can use canned sweet kernel corn for the best crunch, or grill some fresh corn and cut it off the cob for a fun flavor twist.
• Green chilies: I typically use fresh green chilies when I can find them, but canned works too!
• Cumin
• Limes: I love using fresh limes in this recipe, but you can use lime juice in a bottle if you don’t have any.
• Black beans: I use drained and rinsed black beans for this recipe. Rinsing the beans reduces the sodium a bit.
• Optional: Papaya

Want to add more or swap things out? Other ingredient ideas:

• fresh green beans
• cooked and diced sweet potato (I’d undercook them a bit so they’re not mushy)
• red cabbage
• lima beans or shelled edamame
• whole grains like cooked quinoa

How to make Summer Confetti Salad

You’ll definitely want to whip up a batch of this quick salad for your weekly meal plans. If you add it to mason jars, you’ll have a grab and go lunch option.

1. Wash your bell pepper, tomato, papaya, green onion, and fresh chilies if you have them.
2. Wash and dry your cilantro.
3. Chop or dice the veggies into small pieces and add them to a large bowl.
4. Your dressing ingredients are lime juice, chilies, and cumin. Squeeze the limes into a small bowl, discard the rinds. Add green chilies and cumin to this bowl and mix well.
5. Drain and rinse the corn and beans, then add them to the bowl.
6. Combine all ingredients (including the dressing) and mix everything together with a large spoon.
7. While you can eat this salad at room temperature, I think the recipe tastes best served cold. I recommend putting your bowl into the fridge for a few hours or separating portions into small mason jars.

Recipe Tips:

• The fresh veggies give this recipe its signature crunch. I’d always recommend using fresh when you can.
• Serve this recipe with grilled chicken or other lean meats, inside fresh tortillas (like a taco!), or grilled fish

Healthy Eating Plans

• 21 Day Fix
  • Entire Recipe: (about 3 cups): 1 3/4 green containers, 1/2 purple container, 2 yellow containers. I give you this information so you can easily recalculate the containers if you swap out any ingredients in the recipe.
  • Per 3/4 cup serving: just under 1/2 of a green container, 1/2 yellow container. For the purple container, I don’t count it because the amount is slow low when divided into 4 servings.
• 21 Day Fix Vegan Plan Counts: Increase your black beans to 3/4 cup, and add 3/4 cup cooked quinoa to the recipe.
  • Entire recipe is 1 3/4 green containers, 1/2 purple container, 2 red containers, 1 yellow-A container.
  • Per 3/4 cup serving: just under 1/2 of a green container, 1/2 red container, 1/4 yellow-A container.
• 2B Mindset
  • Makes a great lunch when served with 25% protein.
  • On the vegan plan, this counts as a complete lunch.
• Weight Watchers: 0 Blue Plan Points | 2 Green Plan Point | 0 Purple Plan Points

More delicious Summer Appetizer and Side Dish recipes

• Buffalo Cauliflower Dip with Chicken
• Healthy Elote Dip
• Sweet Potato Crab Cakes
• Easy Corn and Black Bean Salad with Chickpeas
• Instant Pot Cauliflower Potato Salad