This Cowboy Caviar (aka Texas Caviar or Mississippi Caviar) is a classic summer side dish. Easy to prepare and full of flavor, it’s a favorite choice for potlucks, barbecues, and get-togethers. Filled with black beans, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, corn, sweet peppers, avocado, green onion, and cilantro, and tossed with a tasty lime vinaigrette, we love serving this with tortilla chips or as a side with grilled chicken.

What we love about this Cowboy Caviar

There are so many reasons to love this dish. I love the combination of flavors with the fresh vegetables, beans, and the dressing. I am a huge avocado fan and love the creamy avocado and the flavor it adds to each bite. The black beans, corn, tomato, red pepper, green onion, and cilantro with the avocado give it a great southwestern flavor kick, and when you add the dressing and dip a salty chip into the dip, it is a match made in heaven.

I love the dressing, the oil and red wine vinegar have a little garlic, salt, lime, and cumin, which really enhances the flavor of the vinaigrette and dip. Eating this with a bag of tortilla chips is a huge must. It starts to honestly become a main dish rather than a side dish because you just can’t help eating a bunch. Its refreshing, flavorful, addicting, and delicious!

Looking for other summer barbecue dishes? Try our amazing Baby Back Barbecue Ribs, our tasty Potato Salad with Dill Pickles, or for dessert, our delicious Strawberry Glazed Pie!

What you need to make this Cowboy Caviar Recipe

You will need the following ingredients:

Olive oil
Lime juice
Red wine vinegar
Garlic
Salt
Cumin
Black beans
Black-eyed peas
Roma tomatoes
White shoepeg corn
Avocados
Red pepper
Green onions
Cilantro

Cowboy Caviar Avocado Substitutions

I know what it’s like when you don’t have everything on hand and the last thing you want to do is run to the store and pick something up. Here are a few ideas to substitute items on the ingredients list if needed:

You can substitute any color of sweet pepper for the red pepper; I just think the red pepper looks best.
Don’t like black beans or black-eyed peas? You can use 2 cans of one or the other if you would like.
You could substitute 1-1 1/2 cups of corn sliced from a cooked cob of corn, or cooked frozen corn, to substitute for the can of shoepeg corn.
You can substitute the green onions with about 1/2 cup of red onion, diced.
If you don’t have red wine vinegar, you could substitute apple cider vinegar or perhaps white vinegar.
Vegetable oil or avocado oil could substitute for the olive oil.
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder could substitute for the clove of garlic.

Step-by-step Instructions for Cowboy Caviar with Avocado

Step 1. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt, and cumin.

Step 2. In a large bowl, gently mix together the black beans, black eyed peas, tomatoes, corn, avocados, red pepper, green onions, and cilantro. Pour the dressing over the top and gently mix (to avoid mashing the avocado) until fully incorporated.

Step 3. Pour into a serving bowl and serve with chips.

Tips

You can make the Cowboy Caviar in advance, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 1-2 days before serving for the best presentation. If you do prepare it in advance, wait to add the avocado until right before serving. The quality of the vegetables will soften and become more watery over time, especially the tomato.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to store Cowboy Caviar? Can you make it ahead of time?

a. Cowboy Caviar lasts 3-4 days, covered, in the fridge. To keep it food safe, it should not be out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. If you are outside in the heat, it is only safe for one hour if left out and not refrigerated. If it has been left out in the heat for longer than that, I wouldn’t keep it to serve for later.
b. You can technically freeze Cowboy Caviar, but the texture and taste after thawing will be less desirable. The texture of the fresh ingredients will become mushy and watery.
c. You can make the Cowboy Caviar in advance, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 1-2 days before serving for the best presentation. If you do prepare it in advance, wait to add the avocado until right before serving. The quality of the vegetables will soften and become more watery over time, especially the tomato.

What can I serve with Cowboy Caviar?

Cowboy Caviar is a popular summer side dish for barbecue food like hamburgers, grilled chicken, ribs, brisket, or fried chicken. It is also great as a side dish or filling for quesadillas and tacos. It is most often served as a dip with tortilla chips.

Cowboy Caviar with Avocado

Recipe by Risa

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: SidesCuisine: American

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 large clove garlic, minced (or 2 small)
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon cumin
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black-eyed beans, drained and rinsed
1 11-ounce can white shoepeg corn, drained
4 Roma tomatoes, cored and diced
3 small avocados or 2 large, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
½ bunch of cilantro, chopped

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt, and cumin. Set aside.
In a large bowl, gently mix together the black beans, black eyed peas, tomatoes, corn, avocados, red pepper, green onions, and cilantro. Pour the dressing over the top and gently mix (to avoid mashing the avocado) until fully incorporated. Taste for seasoning, adding additional salt if needed.
Pour into a serving bowl and serve with chips.

Notes

You can make the Cowboy Caviar in advance, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 1-2 days before serving for the best presentation. If you do prepare it in advance, wait to add the avocado until right before serving. The quality of the vegetables will soften and become more watery over time, especially the tomato.
Make sure you have plenty of tortilla chips to serve with the dip! You may need more than one large bag of tortilla chips if serving the Cowboy Caviar exclusively as a dip.