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The August Garden Salad

August Salad

When I was less adventurous about food I always though about salad in terms of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and french dressing. That was the salad I grew up with, the lettuce was always iceberg, the tomato was from the garden in the summer and from the grocer throughout the rest of the year. Now I don’t eat much iceberg unless I have a craving for a wedge of it smothered with blue cheese and bacon and in that case I’ll be honest, it’s more a crunchy-cold delivery system for the cheese and bacon than an actual salad.

In the past ten years or so I’ve come to appreciate the fact that if you’re eating locally and fresh from the farm you may only have a handful of opportunities to eat fresh lettuce (romaine, butter, green leaf, french head…whatever) alongside a fresh tomato because the growing needs of the two are so different. Tomatoes need long hot, humid, sunny days and lettuce prefers cool damp mornings, sunny, dry afternoons, and cool nights.

That means that in August when the tomatoes are practically jumping off the vine and following me home I have to get creative. My refrigerator is absolutely jammed with ears of corn and bags of potatoes, and piles of eggplants and zucchinis and a cold salad is all I want to eat. That’s when I whip up this salad which is fabulously healthy, filling, and tasty for lunch or dinner. Plus it is so colorful and flavorful that I always look forward to the opportunity to serve it to friends or family.

It’s simply corn that has been cooked on the cob and then sliced off and chilled, tomatoes, either cherry or chunks of whatever big fat tomato needs to be eaten first, a can of black beans, drained and rinsed, roasted peppers, crumbled chevre goat cheese or even better, a lovely french goat feta, and a zippy cilantro vinaigrette. It makes sense that the flavors all work so well together because they all share the garden at the same time. Best of all it is a resilient salad. I’ll toss it together and serve it for dinner and then I pack up the leftovers in a jar and take them to work for lunch the next day and they’re even tastier. Here’s the recipe for the vinaigrette…I think it really brings the flavors together:

Cilantro vinaigrette
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1 very large handful of cilantro, rinsed
½ a small onion
1 clove garlic
½ cup olive oil
½ cup water
¼ cup lime juice
pinch of cumin
salt

Throw everything into the food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Check seasonings and adjust accordingly. I also add some hot sauce if it’s just for me.

August 31, 2008 | Filed Under Local, food, low carb, low cal, quick and easy, recipe, sides, soup, salad, sandwich, vegetable 

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12 Responses to “The August Garden Salad”

  1. JEP on August 31st, 2008

    Thi looks & sounds like an amazingly delicious summer salad! How the heck can I get corn to stay in slices like that…mine always crumbles into kernals? I may switch up the kinds of cheese…lots of possibilities…thanks!

  2. Lisa on August 31st, 2008

    That’s so gorgeous!

  3. Meeta on September 1st, 2008

    oh this looks lovely! i have almost everything in my fridge/pantry!

  4. My Sweet & Saucy on September 1st, 2008

    Simply gorgeous! This looks absolutely delicious…so refreshing!

  5. lo (Burp! Where Food Happens) on September 2nd, 2008

    What a lovely salad. And great use of local produce!
    I have a number of ears of grilled corn (and all sorts of tomatoes from the garden) to use this week… so some variation of this might just make it to the table!

  6. Madeline on September 2nd, 2008

    This looks so good! I have a bunch of tomatoes and corn to use up and I think this salad will be perfect.

  7. Rachelle ~ "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" on September 2nd, 2008

    That looks SO delicious! I could eat a bowl of that!

  8. brilynn on September 3rd, 2008

    This picture forced me to go out and buy corn and make my own corn salad. It was delicious, thank you!

  9. Maggie on September 5th, 2008

    The intact slices of corn kernels are so impressive! It all sounds delicious together.

  10. Jodi aka soNOTcool on September 6th, 2008

    Oh, goodness. I just fell in love with this salad, and your blog! What a treat.

  11. Sophie on September 11th, 2008

    We would like to feature your August Garden Salad on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

    You can view our blog here:
    blog.keyingredient.com/

  12. Heidi from SavoryTv on September 20th, 2008

    Gorgeous and thanks for the recipe, I can’t wait to try it!

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