Summer Corn Salad – Corn, cucumbers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and red onion tossed in an herby vinaigrette!

This is the perfect summer side dish! It’s light, fresh, and full of colorful summer produce.

It pairs so well with every summer meal. Burgers, turkey burgers, steak, and cedar plank salmon are some of my favorite dinners to serve this with.

Summer corn salad recipe inspiration:

I really wanted a go-to summer vegetable side dish. I love this blackened corn. But I wanted something a little more fresh for summer.

The base:

This recipe started out as a salad with lettuce. But the lettuce was taking away from the fresh summer produce. So I ditched the lettuce and quadrupled the corn.

The dressing:

To start, I had a simple vinaigrette. Made with lemon juice, lime juice, olive oil, and salt. But the lime juice was a little weird to me. And the dressing was a little… boring?

It needed even more fresh summer flavor. So I got rid of the lime juice and added a bunch of fresh herbs (basil, mint, and chives). The mint may sound weird. But trust me. It’s so bright and summery. It pairs perfect with basil.

Note: This dressing has a lot less oil than most vinaigrettes. Because you don’t need a ton of oil when mixing with vegetables.

The result:

The perfect summer salad! It’s so good you can’t stop eating it.

How to prep this ahead of time:

You can make the dressing a couple days ahead of time and refrigerate. Then toss it with the vegetables when you’re ready to serve.

Or you can make it even farther ahead of time and freeze it. When you’re ready to serve it, microwave in 15 second intervals just until the dressing is defrosted.

Tip:

Whenever I make this corn salad I triple the dressing recipe and freeze the leftovers. That way I already have the salad halfway done when I want to make it in the future.

Substitutions:

• Olive oil – any kind of oil would work.
• Lemon juice – you can use white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar.
• Mint – use parsley instead.
• Chives – use green onions instead
• Frozen corn – I use frozen corn because it’s so much easier. But you can use any kind of corn you prefer. Fresh corn cut off the cob or grilled corn would both be delicious.
• Shaved parmesan – substitute with crumbled feta, black beans, or avocado.
• Orange bell pepper – any color bell pepper would work.
• Red onion – you can use a shallot, yellow onion, or green onions.