This refreshing corn, peach and tomato salad is designed to make seasonal ingredients sing. Make it for your next outdoor cookout!
Rene and I had just spent a gorgeous day at the beach – complete with fried calamari and ice cream at our favorite ocean-view shack – and were driving back to the campground to start prepping a communal dinner with 20 or so of his closest Polish family friends. We stopped at a little farm-stand on the road to pick up some produce. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to contribute to the meal, but seeing as it’s been bright hot all day, we were in the mood for salad. On the shelves, I saw some plump orange tomatoes, ripe peaches and fresh corn, side by side. I bagged up a few pieces of each and we headed “home.”
At first I figured I’d grill the peaches, and serve a raw corn and tomato salad separately. When we got to the campsite, I found half of a red onion leftover in the cooler and a few mint leaves that a friend had brought from her home garden in Boston. Seeing the gorgeous colors together – orange, yellow, and pops of green and purple – I switched gears and decided to toss all the ingredients into a huge salad instead. I couldn’t imagine what they would all taste like together but remembered that “What grows together, goes together” and thought, how bad could it be? (Don’t you just love Cape Cod Alex? She’s so laid-back.)
(As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that the type of camping we do is kinda posh. We’re talking blow-up mattresses, gazebos and propane stoves, so our campsite cooking is a touch more sophisticated than the typical warm-a-can-of-beans-in-the-fire fare.)
The corn, peach and tomato salad was a hit and I admit I gave myself a mental pat on the back as people praised it all picnic table long. I knew I wanted to remake the salad when I got home and share it with you. The second time around, I doctored it up with some feta (its brinyness offsets the sweetness of the peaches and corn nicely) and lemon juice, since the Sun Gold tomatoes I used were not as acidic as the orange vine tomatoes I used back on the Cape; this would also be fantastic with multi-color heirloom tomatoes.
(8 votes, average: 4.88 out of 5)
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This Corn, Peach and Tomato Salad is designed to make the seasonal ingredients sing. Thus, making it with out-of-season produce would be a disaster. It’s goes perfectly with grilled foods, so make it for your next barbecue. It’s also perfect for summer potlucks – just hold off on dressing it with oil and lemon juice until after you arrive at the party.
Ingredients
- 3 small ears of fresh summer corn, shucked
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 ripe peaches, halved, pitted and thinly sliced
- 1 pound Sun Gold tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 small red onion, cut into medium dice
- 2 ounces feta, crumbled (about 1/3 cup)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Handful of mint leaves, cut into thin ribbons
Instructions
- Lay each ear of corn flat on a large cutting board and using a sharp knife, slice the kernels off. (Reserve the cobs for corn stock, if desired).
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Add the corn kernels, season with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a few turns of black pepper. Toss to coat in oil and cook for about 5 minutes, until the kernels are starting to brown.
- Transfer the corn to a large bowl and add the peaches, tomatoes, onion, feta, lemon juice and the remaining tablespoon of oil. Toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The salad tastes best if you let it stand for ~10 minutes to let the flavors combine. Garnish with mint before serving.
Nutrition
- Calories: 246
Keywords: corn, peach, tomato, salad, feta, mint
I just made this salad subbing in lime juice for the lemon, and adding a little lime zest as well. It was terrific!
Awesome – glad to hear it! Love the zest idea, especially since it helps reduce food waste 🙂
Yummy! This is a truly palatable dish, Alexandra! Does the corn need to be fresh?
I would say yes, because there are so few ingredients here and you really want to highlight the flavors. But if you can’t find fresh corn, try it with canned. Just be sure to drain, rinse and pat it dry before cooking 🙂
I love the look and sound of this salad, what a great combination of ingredients (that I woudln’t have thought of myself)! posh camping is the way to go for me too, we even have an actual little camper with a bed and a stovetop, it’s wonderful. 🙂
Nice! We dream of a VW bus one day 😉