One last summer salad

Well, it looks like fall is here after all in the Windy City. On Monday it was 85 and sunny. Today is 62 and cloudy. I love fall! I love the crunchy leaves on the sidewalk, a chill in the air, and most of all soup! I love making soup in the fall. But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. More on fall soup recipes another day.

I had most of the ingredients on hand to make one last summery salad. This was my faaaavorite salad this summer. Oh my goodness, so flavorful and so simple. I made it for parties, cookouts, and potlucks and everyone loved it! Everyone. Really. I first discovered it on a friend’s tumblr, but I recently found the source of the recipe on Pinterest.

Side note – can we talk about how much I love Pinterest? I could spend hours scrolling through everybody’s pins (especially the food. Drool.) Want to be my Pinterest friend? You can find me here.

OK, anyway – a friend pinned this recipe, so I was able to find the original source of this tasty dish. It came from Jehan Can Cook. Thank you Jehan!

I modified the recipe just a bit.

Corn, Avocado & Tomato Salad
1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in halves. (I prefer heirloom tomatoes)
2 ripe avocados, roughly chopped
3-4 ears fresh sweet corn OR one bag frozen corn (of course, it’s way better with fresh corn!)
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Dressing
Juice of 1 lime (Lemon juice is fine, too. I’ve got a big bottle of it in the fridge, so that’s usually what I use)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced (the original calls for 1 clove, but hey, garlic is awesome. go crazy)
Ground pepper to taste
Dash of cayenne pepper

As you can see, I’m doing the lazy version of the recipe, and using frozen fire roasted corn from Trader Joe’s. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any fresh corn. Also, I didn’t have cilantro. It’s still good without it, but the cilantro adds the perfect flavor to the recipe, so I would definitely recommend using it.

If you’re using fresh corn, you can grill it as the original recipe calls for, or if you’re like me and don’t own a grill, boiling is fine. If you’re using frozen corn and making the recipe a few hours before it will be eaten, you can just throw the corn as is in the bowl, and it will defrost on its own.

If you’ve got fresh corn, after grilling or boiling, cut the corn off the cob and set aside to cool.

Add all of the ingredients for dressing in a bowl, and whisk to combine.

Mmmmm, can’t you just smell the garlic? (If you’re wondering what the floaty things are – that’s the garlic skins. I pull them out of the garlic press after I use it and throw them in. I don’t like to waste food.)

Now add your tomatoes…

Look at all those pretty tomatoes! …. After you’ve admired your tomatoes, you can add the avocado, corn, and cilantro! Mix gently, making sure not to smush your avocado. You can throw it in the fridge for an hour if you want to serve it chilled, but I think it tastes great, warm corn and all.

Voila! This recipe will serve 6-8.

Enjoy this one… because it’s going to be a long time until summer comes around again.