Corn Salad With Zucchini, Tomato & Cilantro

This is a beautiful summer (or anytime salad)… true confessions here, I had bought 5 ears of wonderful looking corn to make this salad.  However, by the time dinner prep came around I was short for time and used my frozen corn kernels (from my always ready freezer stash) and it was still awesome. The fresh from the farmer’s market tomatoes, zucchini and cilantro certainly helped!

Expectations:

• Total time: This is another variation of my ’10-minutes-or-less-warm-vegetable-side-dish-salad’.
• Servings:  This serves 4 – 6.  It’s 4 with fairly large adult serving sizes if you have a 2 adult, 2 small kid configuration.  It does keep well in the fridge for a day or two, so if there’s extra store in an airtight container.
• Kid Modifications:  For kids who are not salad eaters yet (like mine) serve all of the vegetables separated onto small plates versus ‘combined’ as a salad, which is easy to do with a large spoon, serve their portions first, add the cilantro last and if using hot sauce (after the kids’ portions are removed).

Ingredients:

• 1 medium zucchini – tough stem end removed and cut into small chunks
• 1 large tomato – cut into 1/2 inch (or bite sized) chunks.
• Frozen corn kernels (about 8  – 10 ounces) or 5 ears of fresh corn, cooked and cut vertically to remove the kernels.
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil.
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Optional: 1/4 cup of cilantro leaves, chopped roughly.
• Optional: after serving the kids’ portions, add a dash of Sriracha or other hot pepper sauce to taste.

Steps:

1. Pour 1/4 cup of olive oil into the pan to warm it up over medium-high heat.
2. Sauté the corn for about 4 minutes, then add the zucchini and sauté for another 2 or 3 minutes.  When the zucchini has softened and the corn is warm but still ‘firm’, turn off the heat and add the salt, pepper, tomatoes, cilantro and hot sauce if using.

Warm corn, zucchini & tomato salad.

Enjoy!

See my Kids’ plates for the Slow cooker BBQ ribs & corn salad. Easy to modify for kids, by cutting the pork into small pieces, putting salad veggies separately onto the plates.

Sign up for the weekly MHN updates, if you haven’t already!