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Grilled Corn Salad

This Grilled Corn Salad has been a life saver for dealing with the deluge of veggies coming from my CSA and my garden this season.

Grilled Corn Salad. Grilled corn, tomatoes, peppers and scallions tossed with cilantro, lime, salt and pepper. Great as a salad or side dish!

Seriously, I’ve got tomatoes and corn and peppers and onions and herbs coming out of my ears! No pun intended ;) One thing I know is…if it’s not ready to eat then it’s probably not going to get eaten.

My dad knew this. Whenever we had fruit in the house, it was always washed and in a fruit bowl, ready to eat. If he bought melons or pineapples, they were always peeled, cut up and ready to consume. And it worked. If you were in the kitchen and saw the fruit, you ate it. If it required work, probably not. Simple as that. I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been roasting up trays of veggies all summer long. It’s been my secret weapon to use up the bountiful harvest we’ve been enjoying all summer. This salad? It’s my other secret weapon.

I’ve made this Grilled Corn Salad at least 3 times this summer and never had a chance to shoot it. I barely got this one shot. We had just finished dinner and the sun was beginning to set, so I set up a quick shot and took it out to my backyard to catch as much light as possible. Thus, no process photos this time, just a few nice shots to get the idea across. Just imagine crunchy sweet grilled corn hanging out with perfectly sweet and juicy summer tomatoes and crunchy sweet peppers, a little heat from the jalapenos, the tang of lime juice and the freshness of cilantro. I can’t believe I’m craving it again just writing about it!

Grilled Corn Salad. Grilled corn, tomatoes, peppers and scallions tossed with cilantro, lime, salt and pepper. Great as a salad or side dish!

Each time I make it, I make a BIG batch, at least it’s a big batch for our family of four. You can adjust the quantities to whatever your needs are, but my goal was to use up alot of veggies in one fell swoop.

Let’s start with the corn. I decided to grill it for a little extra flavor. Just cook it long enough to get some char on it. Don’t kill it or your beautiful sweet, juicy, crispy corn will die a horrible death and become dry and chewy :(  (Um, just ask my husband who was on corn grilling duty this week and took his phone out to watch a show while he waited for the corn to cook. That didn’t turn out so well for the corn. #distractions Soooo, no Grilled Corn Salad that day.)

Then, I simply chopped up a ton of tomatoes, peppers (sweet peppers of various sizes as well as jalapenos) and green onions (because my kids prefer them over regular onions.) Then, inspired by this recipe for Pico de Gallo, which we love so much we practically eat it by the spoonful, I figured I might as well just expand that idea and actually make a salad big enough to really dig into. I simply seasoned the salad with salt and pepper, a pinch of sugar, squeezed lime juice over all and added chopped fresh cilantro.

Grilled Corn Salad. Grilled corn, tomatoes, peppers and scallions tossed with cilantro, lime, salt and pepper. Great as a salad or side dish!

So really, it’s like a chunky fresh salsa that we’re eating in side dish and salad amounts. It’s seriously delicious! My family loves it! I’ve been making it all summer and no one has gotten tired of it. (And it’s a big batch, so we’re eating it at multiple meals.) In fact, every time I make it, I swear, one of us comments, “Ugh, this salad! It’s just soooo good!”

This is really more of an idea than a recipe. In the notes I mention that you can use other veggies, increase the heat with hotter peppers, add pasta or beans or top with queso fresco. It’s great for a crowd. It’s great as a side to meat, poultry and fish, and is perfectly vegetarian/vegan on it’s own.

If you’re drowning in fresh veggies during this wonderful end of summer harvest, this is a delicious way to use them up enjoy them. If you’re not drowning in veggies, get thee to the store and take advantage of the season. Like my dad prepping all of the fruit for us…if you build this Grilled Corn Salad,

Grilled Corn Salad. Grilled corn, tomatoes, peppers and scallions tossed with cilantro, lime, salt and pepper. Great as a salad or side dish!

they will come :)

Grilled Corn Salad

Grilled Corn Salad

Yield: 8 -12 generous servings

This makes a large batch of salad, but you can cut in halves or thirds if you'd prefer a smaller quantity.

Ingredients

  • 6 cups chopped fresh tomato
  • 2 cups chopped sweet bell pepper
  • 1-2 jalapenos, diced
  • 6 ears fresh corn on the cob
  • 2-3 green onions, sliced, (white and green parts)
  • heaping teaspoon kosher salt
  • freshly grated black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • juice of one lime
  • large handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

  1. Wash and shuck corn. Place on a very hot grill and cook, turning occasionally for about 10 minutes until nicely charred. Take care not to overcook. You still want the corn to be crispy and juicy. Remove the corn kernels from the cob. (See notes below)
  2. Place chopped tomatoes in a large serving bowl. Add salt and sugar and several gratings of black pepper. Stir to combine.
  3. Add sweet peppers, jalapenos, corn, onions, and cilantro. Squeeze the juice of one lime over all and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Notes

*Remove the ribs and seeds of the jalepenos for a mild heat, leave in for more intense heat.

*If my kids weren't adverse to it, I would have used chopped up red onions instead of the green onions. It's delicious with either, so choose your favorite.

*To remove corn from the cob, stand the cob upright and holding firmly on the top (use a towel if it's still too hot to handle) and shave the corn off, cutting from top to bottom with a sharp knife. I use my chef's knife for this job. To keep the kernels from flying around, you can set up your cutting area on a dish towel so the kernels won't bounce. I like to turn a small bowl upside down and place it inside a larger serving bowl. The small bowl provides a platform to rest your corn on and the large bowl catches the kernels as they fall.

*This is a great base recipe that can be switched up in so many ways. Use different vegetables, add a can of rinsed beans, add pasta, top with queso fresco. Use hotter peppers like serrano for a salad with more kick.

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