One of the freshest tasting vegetable salads in my rotation: Sweet Corn Salad with a light and creamy dill dressing is full of the season’s finest vegetables – sweet raw corn, crunchy bell peppers, crisp cucumbers – topped with an herby dressing. It’s summer in a bowl!
It feels odd to be writing about fresh, snappy corn-on-the-cob in a week when the thermometer began at 99°F on Saturday (ironically, the hottest day of the year — in September) and then plummeted to the 60’s, where it’s lingered ever since, drizzly and gray. Today, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and hot soup for lunch, and man, it was the warm hug I really needed.
But. There is still much summer vegetable harvesting to be done. Despite the chill, plants are thriving and producing, finally regrouping from the relentless heat of August to send out a second bounty.
And there’s corn (technically not a vegetable, but a grass). Silver Queen and bicolored ears dominate the stands of farmers’ markets all over town. Completely irresistible.
This fresh, beautiful salad is a prime example of how delicious sweet corn is, right off the cob, no cooking. Yes, raw corn!
Corn kernels are perfectly edible in their raw state. They’re wonderfully sweet and crunchy, and, when preparing sweet corn salads like this one, it’s impossible not to sneak kernels from bowl (especially when they come off the cobs in charming rafts).
When I prepare a salad such as this, I always buy extra cobs, and freeze the corn [2] for winter soups.
Not only is this salad gorgeous in the bowl, but it’s dead easy to make. A little chopping is all it takes. Even the dressing is as easy hitting the buttons on the blender.
Visit the local farmers’ market, and make this Sweet Corn Salad for your next cookout or picnic!
Karen xo
Sweet Corn Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1 shallot, finely chopped, divided usage
- 3 ears of fresh, raw corn, kernels removed
- 2 pickling cucumbers, diced
- 1 small red bell pepper, diced
- 1 handful fresh dill (about 4 smallish sprigs), minced
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, minced
- crumbled Feta cheese, for garnish
For the dressing:
- 1/3 cup buttermilk (low fat is fine)
- 2/3 cups greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoons chopped shallots
- 1 small clove garlic, minced and mashed with a pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh dill
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl toss the corn kernels lightly to separate them, add the shallot and the remaining salad ingredients, tossing again to combine.
- Add the dressing ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Just before serving, toss the salad with dressing, adding a little bit at a time, until all ingredients are lightly coated with dressing. Garnish with feta cheese. Serve the remaining dressing on the side.
Nutrition
adapted from Food52.com [7]
Pin Sweet Corn Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing recipe for later:
Pinterest fans, if you’d like to save this recipe for later, use these images (or any image above) to pin to your boards (they’re small here, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs, they’ll be full size when you pin them). Thanks for sharing, and most of all, thank you so much for reading this post! Blogging wouldn’t be any fun without you!
