Mexican Bruschetta - Vegan

Feast your eyes on this beautiful plate of food! Amazingly, this picture was taken by my humble little Canon PowerShot that has taken all my other pictures so far. The only difference is our friend Bryan Mullins, who is a professional photographer, was the one behind the camera. He graciously gave me a tripod and a wealth of tips and tricks to improve my food photographing skills. What a HUGE difference -- thanks Bryan!

Today is Sunday, and twice a month, our family meets with our Life Group from church. There are eight families who regularly attend with their children, who range in age from 1 to 8 years old. We discuss sermon topics, parenting topics, marriage and sometimes just get together for some fun. Our group is an invaluable anchor for our family in this crazy mixed up world we live in, and we are so grateful for them!

For our Sunday meetings we have "theme" meals.  This Sunday each family is supposed to bring "a thing with toppings".  In my Family Recipe Binder I have a tasty recipe for this mexican bruschetta that has not one, but two toppings, and it's healthy (and vegan) to boot.

After our photo session, I ate a piece since I hadn't had lunch after leaving church this morning, and for some reason it tasted more "limey" than usual.  The original recipe is one I adapted from "Cook's Illustrated" (which, by the way, you need a subscription to access the recipe on-line, which is why I'm not posting the link).

Anyway, if a recipe you've made is ever too tart or bitter, a quick and easy fix is to add some plain white sugar.  Start with a little and keep tasting until you get it just right.  In this case, it only took about a teaspoon to make the bruschetta as tasty as I remembered. I usually serve this as an appetizer, but I have made it as a main course before. It's extremely quick to throw together, another bonus on a busy day!

Mexican Bruschetta

toast 
1 loaf of good country bread cut into one-inch slices (Panera is where I get mine)
1 large clove of garlic, peeled
Place the slices of bread on a rimmed baking sheet, in a single layer.  Place under the broiler.  Watch closely so the bread is lightly toasted -- about 2 minutes per side.  Immediately after taking out of the oven, lightly rub both sides of the bread with the fresh garlic.

bean topping
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 T. lime juice
1/4 c. olive oil
1 T. water
1/2 salt
pinch of ground cayenne pepper
Puree all ingredients in a food processor.

salsa topping
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained well
1 c. frozen corn (cooked according to package directions and cooled)
1 avocado, diced
2 T. lime juice
1 t. dried cilantro
1 t. sugar
1/4 t. salt
Fold all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.

To serve, top each slice of bread with a thin layer of bean spread and then divide the salsa evenly among the bread slices, on top of the bean spread.