Corn, Tomato, Cucumber & Pea Tendril Salad

Expectations:

This is another ‘go to’ summer salad and I make about 2 dozen + variations of it.  It comes together in about 15 minutes, you can cut the vegetables while the corn is cooking.  If you need an even faster version, use frozen corn (good  to have on hand in the freezer at all times).

It serves 4 people, however, if some members of your family aren’t into corn the leftovers refrigerate well for about 1 or 2 days.

Minimal chopping for this salad! Yay!  Corn, baby cucumbers, tomatoes & carrots (not for the salad, for my oldest on the side)

Ingredients:

• 4 ears of corn — husks and silks removed.  (You could substitute with one package of frozen corn kernels)
• Optional – 1 cup of pea tendrils, roughly chopped.  Would be easy to substitute sugar snap peas for this, if so, ends removed.
• 1 baby cucumber (cut into thin rounds)
• 1 large tomato (thinly sliced into rounds)
• Extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cup)
• Salt (1 tbsp. for a large pot of water to cook the corn in, additional salt to taste for the finished salad, about 1//2 tsp.
• Optional:  Fresh ground pepper to taste or hot sauce (i.e. a red sauce like Red Hot, Sriracha or mustard based sauce like Bajan or Jamaican hot sauce).

Steps to put this on your table:

1. Bring a large pot with 1 tbsp. of salted water to boil.  Once it’s boiling, put in the ears of corn, reduce heat slightly to fast simmer and cook covered for 10 minutes.  If using the pea tendrils or sugar snap peas, place in a steamer basket above the boiling corn, covered, for the last three minutes of cooking time (i.e. add them after the corn has been cooking for 7 minutes).
2. When the corn is done, remove the ears carefully (using tongs) and place them on a cutting board or in a large bowl to cool.  When they’re cool enough to handle cut the corn kernels off in strips from top to bottom with a sharp knife while ‘standing’ the corn ear up vertically.  I typically do this, while the ear is inside of a large bowl to prevent the kernels from spraying around the cutting board, as they do.
3. Place the kernels and all of the other ingredients you’re using into a medium sized bowl.  Toss gently and ladle onto the plates.
4. Enjoy!