I was looking for something light, crunchy, and zippy to go with the crab cakes (recipe coming soon - it's worth the wait) I was making. Low and behold I had most of these ingredients in the fridge. There is quite a bit of dicing involved with this, but that makes me very happy. I love to cut/chop/dice/etc. It's kind of like therapy in a way.
I call this Summer Salad because the lightness reminds me of a refreshing side dish to a summer meal. Why was the summer theme so important? Because it was my first Valentine's Day with The Now Former Male and I wanted to not only impress him, but also to warm us up by reminding us of summer. Sure enough, an ice storm hit the night before and we woke up to an icy V-Day. The entire meal (Summer Salad, a warm potato salad, and crab cakes) ended up being the perfect meal.
As it turns out, I use this salad a lot. It's very light, simple, and incredibly versatile.
THE NIBBLES
Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1/2 English cucumber
4 ears of corn (can be substituted: see note below)
1 can black beans (recommended: Goya)
1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Boil four ears of corn until cooked through. Remove from heat, rinse under icy cold water to cool (or plunge into an ice bath). When cool to the touch, cut the corn off the cob and set aside. If you prefer not to use this method or corn is out of season, thaw out 1 1/4 cups frozen whole kernel corn. Fresh has a slightly different taste, but thawed frozen is still very good. (Canned is also an option but make sure it's just in water and there's no sodium added. Drain and rinse off canned corn if you use that.)
Clean, slice into strips, and then dice the red pepper, cucumber, and red onion and throw everything into a large bowl. This should ultimately work out to roughly a cup each of the pepper and cuc, 1/2 cup of onion. Drain and rinse the black beans and add to the diced veggies. Add the fresh cut or thawed out corn.
Now add a few tablespoons of olive oil - just enough to barely coat everything. Do the same with the red wine vinegar. Mix with a spoon until it's oh so pretty! Now taste it. You should be able to taste the vinegar right away, but you don't want it overpowering. I'm a fan of vinegar though so I'll add a little more than most people probably would. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and 5 or 6 grinds of black pepper. Just enough to bring out the flavors of all the ingredients.
Now it's parsley time!
The parsley is added after the wet ingredients for two reasons. One: so that it does not influence the taste of the vinegar as you're adding that to the veggies. And Two: so it will stick to the veggies rather than wash off and sink to the bottom as you add to oil and vinegar.
Pull the leaves off the parsley bunch and chop fine. You don't want to pulverize it, but you don't want huge leaves either. You want something in the middle. You'll need about a half a cup so chop chop chop! Add the parsley to the party and stir to combine. Put it in the fridge a few hours before serving or over night. Unlike Cucumber Salad, this does not wilt very quickly and keeps a bit longer.
Serve as a side dish, relish, or a salad topper.
