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  • Roasted Corn & Tomato Salad with Basil Balsamic Dressing

    7 votes
    Roasted Corn & Tomato Salad with Basil Balsamic Dressing
    Prep: 15 min Cook: 15 min Servings: 4
    by Amos Miller
    101 recipes
    >
    Super simple Summer salad! Almost a relish, yet offering opportunity for countless variations, this is picnic & BBQ perfect. On these hot summer days, you may not want to fire up the broiler, but this salad is so easy to bring together that when the coals are ready on the grill, just lay the unhusked ears of sweet corn over the fire and turn to get the husks blacked all around. You do want to gain some color on the kernels - anywhere from tan to scorched - because you do want some of the smokey, grilled flavor (otherwise I'd be telling you to open a can of Green Giant...). You may, depending on your diners, want to introduce a 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper, or some chopped olive (I'd recommend Nicoise - you don't want anything too strong or sharp, but stay away from the American black olives - too bland and not enoigh character for the dressing), or even, yes, some baby mozzarella. So gather your 'mise', make sure everything 'en place', and assemble this most satisfying dish. I've paired this down to 4 salad-sized servings. You build from here. The dressing is perfectly adequate for a "triple batch" - 6 ears corn, 3 pints tomatoes, 6 green onions, 6 cloves of garlic. That's why I direct you to drain the salad below. I basically batch this for about 16 servings and I like the proportions for the dressing, the flavoring, just as it is - but many of you, my friends, are serving 2-4-6 folks, therefore, lots of dressing is made for a modest amount of salad. Creative recycling might be to reserve what you pour off - and use it to dress braised asparagus later...

    Ingredients

    • THE SALAD:
    • 1 pint (a small basket) grape tomatoes
    • 2 ears quality sweet corn
    • 1/4 C green onions (about 2 scallions or Spring onions)
    • 1 clove fresh garlic
    • 8 nice basil leaves
    • THE DRESSING:
    • 1/4 C white Balsamic vinegar
    • 1/2 C high quality olive oil
    • 1 tsp honey (or sugar)
    • 8-10 fresh basil leaves
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt
    • 1/4 tsp black pepper

    Directions

    1. THE SALAD:
    2. Carefully cut the ears of corn at both ends - just feel for the tip and cut it off and cut off most of the remnant of the stalk (the bottom). Leave the hust on the corn. Put the ears on the grill and watch it as it scorches, and turn to roast the ear evenly to black. [TIP: I roast the whole ear, cool them and clean them up - I like how that cooks the corn and it make it easy to cut the kernels off the cobs.] When done, remove to cool. Then shuck the ears and remove the silk.
    3. CAREFULLY and not too fast, stand an ear on the stalk end and slowly cut the corn from the cob and put the cut corn in a bowl.
    4. Repeat with the other ear, add to the bowl
    5. Cut the tomatoes in half, add to the bowl
    6. Mince the garlic, add to the bowl
    7. Slice the onions into thin disks and add to the bowl
    8. Shred (chiffonade) the basil leaves and add to the bowl
    9. THE DRESSING:
    10. In a small bowl, combine the oil and vinegar, sweetener, salt & pepper, and whisk until well combined, smoothly cloudy
    11. THE SALAD ASSEMBLY:
    12. Pour the dressing onto the vegetables, and mix very well
    13. LOOKS LIKE TO MUCH DRESSING
    14. It is - pour the dressed salad a sieve, and drain off all the liqiud, then plop the salad back into its bowl, cover and chill for at least 1 hour
    15. Plate individual servings {TIP: Prepare the salad a day before with all ingredients except the basil. Chill overnight in the cooler. Prior to serving, dump the prepared salad into a larger bowl, chiffonade the basil, and sprinkle onto the sald, then combine it well. Now it is ready to serve. Don't be surprised by the accolades of your guests.]

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    Reviews

    • Stacey Maupin Torres
      Stacey Maupin Torres
      Excellent dish, Chef. I especially like your suggestion to add nicoise olives to the mix. My grill isn't up and ready yet (I know, today is Summer Solstice; I'm slow ...) but I have an indoor grill - will char my corn and try this today! Great for my diet too!
      • Arturo Féliz-Camilo
        Arturo Féliz-Camilo
        Very nice! Thanks for sharing Amos!
        • Salad Foodie
          Salad Foodie
          Enticing colors and flavor combos here. I tried half of the salad dressed as you have here, and then ~ as you said there's countless opportunities for variations ~ I tried the other half dressed with lime juice, olive oil, cilantro and salt and pepper.

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