A veggie salad made with the best summer has to offer ~ from juicy corn to jewel-toned cherry tomatoes and crisp tender green beans ~ this is a gem of a summer salad!
I create some recipes with you readers in mind. I create others specifically for Google, hoping to rank high in search results. But there are lots of other recipes I create simply to please myself. Today’s summer vegetable salad is one of them. I love sweet corn and it’s been especially good these days. I also have an ongoing obsession with the colorful heirloom cherry tomatoes I find in my supermarket. I literally can’t pass them by without grabbing a pint. It’s like a treasure hunt to choose the clamshell with the best colors. This salad is sweet, crunchy, slightly acidic, and so satisfying. Hope you love it like I do! (Feel free to swap out your summer finds for mine, this salad is versatile.)
RELATED: Recipes from the Summer Garden
what you’ll need for a summer vegetable salad
This is the kind of salad that’s made for high summer when even supermarket produce looks top notch. Even better if you have access to garden fresh veggies from your backyard, farm stand, or farmers market.
- corn on the cob
- carefully run a sharp knife down the cobs to remove the kernels.
- cherry tomatoes
- use jewel toned heirlooms like I did, or regular reds.
- green beans
- if you’ve got garden green beans this is the perfect use for them. If not, look for slender beans: large beans can be starchy and tough.
- red onion
- olive oil
- white wine vinegar
- salt and black pepper
- fresh herbs
- I used chives and thyme in the dressing, and basil in the salad.
- crumbled goat cheese
- feta cheese also works, but lately I’m preferring goat cheese because it’s a little milder and creamier than feta. Leave out the cheese or use vegan cheese if you like.
easy microwave blanche veggies for vegetable salads
Please don’t skip this step ~ blanching is important for some veggies in some recipes, like this one. Blanching doesn’t cook the vegetables, but brings out their sweetness, color and flavor, while retaining a crisp texture. A blanched bean is so much more tasty than a raw bean. Ditto for the corn. My easy secret is to blanche in the microwave. There’s no big pot of boiling water to worry about, and it takes just a minute or two. And this trick will work for broccoli and other veggies too.
- Remove the corn kernels from the cobs. Trim and slice your beans.
- Working with one vegetable at a time, put the veggies in a microwave safe bowl, and add a splash of water. Cover with a paper towel and microwave on high for about 1 1/2 minutes. You can rinse under cold water or use an ice bath to stop the cooking, although this isn’t always necessary and I usually skip that.
tips and faqs for a summer veggie salad
Don’t slice and add those cherry tomatoes until shortly before serving. It’s a little extra effort that makes all the difference in a salad. Tomatoes should never be refrigerated, it destroys their texture.
I don’t recommend frozen corn for this salad. If you don’t have fresh sweet corn, wait until you do ๐
Other veggies that will also work well: broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, garden peas, snap peas, and bell peppers. Beets and corn are a great combo, too.
RELATED: 12 Tomato Salads to Make this Summer
more summer veggie salads
- Corn and Cucumber Salad
- Broccoli Honeycrisp Slaw
- Greek Tomato Salad with Salmon
- Mediterranean Bean Salad
- Farmers Market Vegetable Salad
- Loaded Tabbouleh Salad
- Green Goddess Coleslaw
- Chopped Greek Salad
Summer Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 4 ears sweet corn, kernels removed
- 2 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1/2 medium red onion, cut into thin slivers
- 1 pint small cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup basil, cut in thin ribbons
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
dressing
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
- a good pinch each of kosher salt and pepper
- 1 Tbsp finely minced shallot
- 1 Tbsp fresh snipped chives and thyme leaves
Instructions
- Put the corn kernels into a microwave safe bowl and add a splash of water. Cover with a paper towel and microwave for 1 and a half minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Do the same as above, for the green beans. Rinse the beans under cold water to stop the cooking and drain well.
- Whisk together the dressing and taste to adjust anything you like.
- Put the corn and beans in a bowl and toss together with the sliced onions and enough dressing to moisten everything. If you aren't planning to serve the salad immediately, chill the bowl until ready to serve.
- Shortly before serving slice the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the bowl along with the basil. Toss with the rest of the dressing. Serve topped with crumbled goat cheese.
I love this recipe! I serve it over a bed of arugula and spinach to add more greens! The dressing is so tasty.
This recipe is delicious! I cooked my veggies in my air fryer–not too long so they were still crisp. I also added a little champagne vinegar to the dressing to give it a little more kick. I added shrimp cooked in the AF and it was a great dinner!
Thanks for the quick review Jay ~ I never thought to ‘blanche’ my veggies in the air fryer!