Bean, Corn & Tomato Salad

Ingredients

For the vinaigrette:
½ cup vegetable oil
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
For the salad:
1 pint yellow and green beans, about 3 cups
1 can black beans, rinsed and strained
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, chopped
¼ red onion, diced
1 cup of blanched frozen corn or kernels from 2 grilled cobs
¼ cup each: fresh dill, basil, flat-leaf parsley

Takes 15 Minutes, serves 6.

Instructions

Prepare the vinaigrette: Place the oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic and honey into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to emulsify and fully incorporate the honey. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Blanch the beans: Trim away stem ends. Place beans in a medium-sized pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute before straining and immediately transferring to a bowl of ice water to cool. Strain and chop into ½-inch pieces.
Prepare the salad: Place prepared veggies, beans and herbs in a bowl. Add some vinaigrette, salt and pepper to taste and toss. Serve immediately.

This BEAN, CORN & TOMATO SALAD is a thing of beauty and tastes incredible too!

We’re okay with you sharing this recipe with your friends and family; in fact, we recommend it. It always looks so appetizing served on its own as a light meal or next to a favourite main. Perhaps our favourite part is the fresh flavours, something you won’t soon forget.

Since so much of the success of this recipe goes to the fresh vegetables and herbs, we suggest you grab them from your garden or purchase from a local grower. Making this salad with locally grown ingredients ensures the flavours exceed your expectations.

Here are a few tips on making it:

INGREDIENTS

As you can see from the above photo, we kept the number of ingredients to a minimum but maxed out the big flavours. Although we could suggest substitutions, we decided not to for this salad. Make it exactly as written for best results.

Fresh dill, flat-leaf parsley and basil for the salad

HERB BLURB

In the VIDEO attached to this story I explain how the addition of freshly chopped herbs give this salad so much flavour. The combinations of basil, dill and flat-leaf parsley is a stellar taste sensation. Again, if you have these favourite herbs growing in your garden, all the better. They’re fragrant and flavourful.

BEAN THERE

This salad had some pretty humble beginnings: a stray can of black beans. I found it putting away groceries and remembered I had forgotten to use it when I made our famous OVEN-BAKED NACHOS. Just goes to show, everything happens for a reason.

Combining those black beans with blanched yellow and green string beans is like the triple threat of sensational salad ideas. They’re colourful in the mix and good for us too. Beans are packed with protein and make a healthy addition along with the other vegetables.

TOMATO JOY

As luck would have it, I found heirloom cherry tomatoes at my local farmstead when I went to collect the ingredients. They’re sweet and succulent and the crazy assortment of colours give the salad some extra visual appeal. Fingers crossed you can find the same, but if not just look for yellow and red cherry tomatoes at your local supermarket. They’ll work perfectly too.

DRESSING

Although I tossed around the idea of using our POPPYSEED or our ITALIAN DRESSING, in the end I wanted something tangy with just a hint of sweetness to play up the flavours of the herbs. This HONEY MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE is perfect for this but I’ve also used it since to dress a SIMPLE SALAD as well. It’s fab when used on this BEAN, CORN & TOMATO SALAD.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

What’s not to love about these easy instructions? Place prepared veggies and herbs in a bowl. Add some vinaigrette, salt and pepper to taste and toss. Serve immediately. The simple process of making this salad is rewarded by some big and delicious flavours. All in all, it’s joy in a bowl!

As mentioned off the top, this salad can be enjoyed on its own as a light meal, pairing well with these CHEDDAR CORNMEAL MUFFINS. We’ve also served it as a side with our SWEET & SPICY SALMON, our EASY ROAST CHICKEN and our JUICY BURGERS. Simple or fancy, this salad really adds something to any meal.