Black bean salad

This is terrific. Black beans, and tons of flavor: lime, lemon and orange zest, fresh coriander, red onion, et cetera. It's easy to make, pleasantly spicy, and makes for quick lunches -- at home or at the office. And it's terrifically colorful!

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 1 cup dry black beans
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• heaping 1/2 tsp of your favorite spice (non-ground) (e.g., cumin seed, coriander pod, whole peppercorns, etc.)
• 1 small hot pepper
• 1 sweet yellow paprika (or half a bell pepper)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
• fresh coriander (at least 1/3 cup)
• 1/2 red onion
• zest from a lime, lemon and orange
• juice from one lime
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions:

• Put the beans, two garlic cloves (cut into quarters), the bay leaf and the spice into a large pot. Cover with 2 inches of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until beans are cooked to your liking (do not overcook; they should be slightly crunchy for the salad). The simmering will take approximately 45 minutes, but check every 10 minutes after half an hour. When cooked, strain the beans and cool.
• Place hot pepper, paprika/bell pepper, coriander, red onion, the rest of the garlic and zest into a blender (a mini blender, if you have one) and mince. You can also do this by hand (which is how we did it last night), but it's more work than is really necessary.
• Combine beans, blender mix, and the remainder of the ingredients (cherry tomatoes, lime juice and olive oil)