Cauliflower, Corn, and Cucumber Salad

 

It really isn’t necessary to follow a recipe for a big chopped summer salad. Whatever is ripe in the garden or looks good at the farmer’s market has the power go into a bowl with a simple dressing and make your day. That being said, hear me out about a particularly satisfying crunchy combination.

This approximate recipe was out in cyberspace at valentinascorner.com, and I was intrigued. It turns out that the three different textures of crunchy raw cauliflower florets, crisp fresh cucumbers, and chewy grilled kernels of corn really make a uniquely lovely salad for the peak of summer. I liked the cauliflower chopped into small, bite-size pieces, and the cucumbers sliced thin. The corn kind of fills in the gaps between the other vegetables and balances their flavors with its sweeter starchiness. And then there’s a bit of red bell pepper for more flavor and color.

I dressed this salad rather simply, with a mixture of mayonnaise and buttermilk. It pulls the salad ingredients together and makes them a bit saucy, without overwhelming their high summer textures and flavors. Since there are only two ingredients in the dressing, if you decide you want to add or subtract from the volume of your salad based on what’s available – always a good idea when freshness is at hand – you can adjust your dressing quite easily as well.

As I implied above, just about any lovely fresh vegetables you have on hand can make a nice chopped salad like this one. Don’t let this ingredient list limit you, especially if you have a garden or a good local farmer’s market. You also could put in whatever herbs you prefer. I used thyme, just because I felt I’d been neglecting my homegrown pot of it lately, but dill would be very good, as would basil, and perhaps tarragon.

Probably the biggest surprise in this recipe is the way the corn filled a niche and contributed so well to the mix. I was especially excited because on my social media pages, I’ve declared fresh corn to be the Ingredient of the Week! Long live fresh corn! Purchased closed to the source, if you please.

Cauliflower, Corn, and Cucumber Salad

Adapted from valentinascorner.com

The amounts and ratios of the vegetables in this salad are not important. Adjust everything to taste and availability of ingredients.

You can peel the cucumbers if you want. I don't usually bother with fresh cucumbers this time of year.

3 ears fresh corn, husks and silk removed

½ medium-size head of cauliflower, cut int small florets, about 2 cups

2 medium-size cucumbers, halved and thinly sliced

½ large red bell pepper, finely chopped

½ cup thinly sliced red onion

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup buttermilk

1. Preheat a charcoal or gas grill. Grill the ears of corn, turning occasionally, until they are lightly charred on all sides, and the corn is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the corn from the grill and cool until it is easy to handle.

2. Cut the corn off the cob and place in a large bowl. Add the cauliflower, cucumbers, bell pepper, red onion, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and buttermilk. Pour over the vegetable mixture and stir well to coat. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Chopped Vegetable Salad; Crunchy Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Apple Salad

One year ago: Mocha Sorbet

Potato Salad with Fresh Vegetables

I get excited about pretty simple things. Like compost (no photo available, you’re welcome). Like volunteer pumpkin vines with at least 7 pumpkins on them.

 

Like the fact that you can go so many different ways with potato salad. Since I’ve been posting way too infrequently this summer, it was actually quite some time ago that I made this light potato salad with simple rice vinegar dressing, fresh vegetables and olives. This dish is still quite appropriate to the season, perhaps even more so than when I made it. There are lots of great cherry tomatoes available around here (specifically in my garden, right next to the pumpkin patch) as well as bell peppers and cucumbers.

 

I used green bell peppers because really large and delicious ones have been available locally, but the bells in brighter colors (orange, red, yellow) are sweeter and maybe even prettier.  I also had some small, locally grown “new” potatoes that had plenty of nice, creamy, earthy flavor of their own.

 

Really, exactly which type of potato or what kinds of vegetables you use are a matter of personal taste and availability. Each of the lines in the list of ingredients below could begin with the word “about” (or “approximately” if you’re more sophisticated.) Tossing together what looks good and what tastes good and adjusting the seasonings is probably the best way to go for simple summer salads. Not only is that a great way to celebrate summer produce, but it’s also a great way to take it easy. Summer salads don’t need to be obsessed over, after all. They should be laid back and stress free. And, with its relatively small amount of oil and complete lack of mayonnaise, this one can be guilt free as well.

 

 

Potato Salad with Fresh Vegetables and Black Olives

Adapted from Cooking Light April 2008

Scallions would be a nice replacement for the onion.

1 ½ pounds small potatoes

¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 cup chopped cucumber, peeled if skins are tough or greased
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped bell pepper
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup finely chopped (or torn) fresh basil
½ cup sliced ripe olives

1. Place the potatoes in a large pot of cold water to cover by a few inches. Bring to a boil and cook

until the potatoes are just tender. Drain and let stand until cool enough to handle.

2. To prepare the dressing, combine the rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

3. When the potatoes are still a little warm, cut them in halves or quarters. Add them to the bowl with the dressing. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to coat. The warm potatoes will absorb the dressing more than cold potatoes would. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper or vinegar if desired.

Makes about 10 side-dish servings.

 

Other recipes like this one: Lemon Herb Potato Salad; Potato, Broccoli and Green Bean Salad withTarragon Mustard Dressing; Potato Salad with Chinese Flavors

One year ago: Corn and Poblano Chile Pizza

Cucumber Salsa

Now begins, it seems, the truly lazy days of the year. Not only does the heat and humidity keep me from really wanting to tackle anything too difficult, there also are so many fresh and fantastic foods coming into the markets (and in my garden!) that don’t need much altering to make into simple, tasty dishes. It’s just too easy to toss fresh things together into a salad or with some pasta or into a wok. It’s just too easy to vary a favorite dish by garnishing it with some seasonal variation.

The problem with such a breezy lifestyle is that one’s recipe blog can get neglected. And a neglected blog is a sad thing, wasting away somewhere in the ether. So, I’ll tell you about the cucumber salsa I made. It was much like other salsas and I served it on black bean tostadas much like these.

I made this crisp and refreshing salsa (probably more like pico de gallo in its chunky consistency) with some locally-grown hot-house cucumbers, although I’m looking forward to making it with some of the garden-grown cukes that are sneaking into the farmer’s market. I won’t waste your time with the sad story of the pathetic progress of the cucumbers I planted, but I will tell you that my mint and cilantro are growing well, and I was able to use those to make this.

There’s plenty of lime juice and fresh chile to make this salsa tart and spicy, although you could adjust that to taste. For me it’s mostly about the cucumbers and herbs, and since this is so low in calories and high in fresh vegetables, I feel like I can endlessly scoop it with tortilla chips. I’m not perfect. It also was very nice on my tostadas, and this recipe will probably tide me over until fresh tomatoes arrive. And, with any luck, when they do arrive, I probably will be wasting your time with the story of how they grew so well in my own garden.

Cucumber Salsa with Cilantro and Mint
Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 medium garlic clove, peeled

½ teaspoon coarse salt
2 cups finely diced cucumber (peeled if desired)
½ cup finely diced red onion
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely diced (remove seeds and ribs for a milder salsa)
3 tablespoons lime juice

1. Coarsely chop the garlic and sprinkle the salt over it. Make a garlic salt paste and place it in a small bowl.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Makes about 3 cups.

Another recipe like this one: Tomato and Cucumber Pico deGallo

One year ago: Homemade Cottage Cheese and Pasta Carbonarawith Garlic Scapes and Garlic Chives

Cucumber and Radish Salad

I get really excited about cucumbers. They’re one of those vegetables I don’t often buy in the winter or even early spring because the ones shipped in with their weird waxy coatings just don’t measure up to my high flavor expectations. The fresh, local cucumbers (or those I can grow myself – fingers crossed) aren’t usually here until late in the summer, usually too late to enjoy alongside the early-season local radishes in a salad.

Well, it was like Santa Claus came early this year when I found some locally grown hothouse cucumbers just last week. Hooray! Cucumbers! And they were pretty darn delicious, too. I don’t think I even finished putting away the groceries before I cut one up to taste. Thank you Summer Santa!

Since there were also some beautiful and tasty radishes at the farmer’s market, which started up last Saturday (also hooray!), I got to put them together with the cucumbers in this supposedly Japanese-inspired salad. It’s a pretty simple salad and I changed very little from the original recipe this time. I swapped out the sesame seeds for peanuts (because that’s what I had), and I also removed the added salt and poured in some tamari instead. Now, I can see why you might choose the salt over the soy sauce if you want a really perfectly pretty salad. The soy sauce does add some, well, brownness to the dressing, but it tastes so good, I didn’t mind.

The dressing is mostly rice vinegar, which makes the vegetables take on just a bit of a pickled characteristic, especially if you leave yourself some leftovers to savor the next day. Since rice vinegar is milder than grape wine or cider vinegar (or distilled vinegar, which I pretty much only use for cleaning things), I found it to be just right and not overwhelming.

I know there are more cucumbers and radishes out there, so I hope to keep making this refreshing summery salad. I would like try scallions in place of the onions, and maybe even try some pickled ginger. There are a lot of ways this could go, and since there’s a lot of dressing in the recipe, one could just keep adding to the bowl without making more complicated changes. That’s probably what I like most about the arrival of the season of fresh vegetables. They do all the work (or rather the people that grew them did!) and the cook really doesn’t have to do much but sit back and enjoy them. Hooray for early cucumbers!

Cucumber and Radish Salad

Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, June 2006

1 cucumber (or 2 smaller, about 10 ounces)

½ cup thinly sliced sweet onion
8 sliced radishes (about 4 ounces)
½ cup rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp dark sesame oil (or infused sesame oil)
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons finely chopped peanuts

1. Peel the cucumber(s) if desired. (Mine were very fresh and had tender skin, so I left it on). Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and slice into thin half-circle-shaped slices. Place in a medium to large bowl. Add the sliced onion and radishes to the cucumbers.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, tamari or soy sauce, sesame oil and crushed pepper flakes. Pour over the cucumber mixture and stir to combine. Chill for at least 15 minutes. Stir the salad a few times if you have the time.

3. Just before serving, sprinkle the salad with the peanuts.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Another recipe like this one: Cold Cucumber Soup

Holy cow, I can hardly believe this is the first cucumber salad I’ve posted to The Messy Apron! I’ve got some work to do!
 

One year ago: Blackberry Sauce with Lime and Vanilla

Cool Cuke Soup

There is an old photo of me at about the age of three in which I am sitting on the porch with my grandfather, and we are both happily munching cucumbers, no doubt right from the garden. His is a whole cuke, his fist wrapped around it as if it were an ice cream cone. Mine is a slice or a spear, I can't remember for sure. (In my other hand is a sucker, proving that I had not quite yet achieved true-believer status.)

This is the scene that comes to mind when I think of cucumbers. I'm not sure where that photo is now, although it must be in one of my mother's albums. Perhaps next year when cucumber season rolls around again, I'll be able to post a digital copy of it here.




Until then, I have to eat all the cucumbers in our CSA box. Luckily, I love them. (As far as garden bounty goes, they're second only to tomatoes if you ask me.) Really, I could just eat all them out of hand like apples, and I think Harry could too. But I can't leave well enough alone. I have to use a recipe. I have to cut and stir and process and ladle and garnish and serve. And then I have to clean up. Someday, I suppose I'll learn to just eat them mess free, but until then, I have to fiddle with a cucumber soup with yogurt and sour cream.

I like to leave the skins on my cukes when I can. Most of those you might get from the supermarket are coated with a food-grade wax or some such thing, and others may have pesticides. This time of year, however, you should be able to get your hands on plenty of locally grown cukes. (Nothing compares to these ultra-fresh babies, really.) Our CSA cucumbers are organic, so I simply wash of the dirt (essence of Mother Earth) and eat the skins. If the cucumbers are large, however, it's likely that the seeds are large, too, so for something like this cucumber soup, I like to remove them. I either quarter the cucumber lengthwise and cut out the seeds on an angle, or, for more fun, I halve them and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

After that, I can simply chunk them up and toss them in the food processor with the remaining soup ingredients and puree to my heart's content.

The garnish is optional, but adds a bit more flavor and texture. You could also just garnish with pico de gallo or salsa if it's more convenient. It is still summer after all, and you gotta stay cool...and you have to make time for all those other cucumber recipes!

Cold Cucumber Soup

3 cups chopped seeded cucumber

2 cups plain yogurt

1 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 garlic cloves, chopped

Garnish (optional)

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 cup chopped green onion (scallion)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine all ingredients except those for the garnish in the bowl of a food processor (or you could probably use a blender). Process until well-pureed.

2. Pour into a large bowl, cover and chill at least 1 hour.

3. Combine garnish ingredients. Serve in small bowls topped with the garnish if desired.

Makes 4-5 servings.