Quick Summer Recipe: Sweet Corn, Mango, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

Quick Summer Recipe: Sweet Corn, Mango, Avocado, and Tomato Salad 

This will probably be a pretty quick post but thought I would give a little update about a tasty and impromptu recipe I threw together last night. This summer we purchased a biweekly share from a local organic farm. This basically means that once every two weeks we get to pick up a box of assorted produce all grown at an organic farm right here in Illinois! Through out the summer the contents of the box have varied including a mix of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, swiss chard, oregano, dandelion greens, cabbage, corn, squash, beets, kohlrabi, carrots and more. This week we got lots of corn, a few cucumbers, a jalapeño, plus some other goodies; and we also had a mango, some limes, and an avocado lying around. These ingredients all sort of jumped out at me when I was trying to think of a quick snack to throw together, so I went for it! In a large bowl I combined the corn, tomatoes, cucumber, jalapeño, mango, lime juice, and avocado along with some salt and pepper. After giving everything a mix I tasted it and loved it, it was super refreshing and had a nice balance of sweetness from the mango and corn, spice from the jalapeño, and tartness from the lime. The avocado also added a nice rich, creamy texture to the salad. In retrospect I would have liked to add some smoky cumin and either fresh garlic or granulated garlic for added layers of flavor, but I didn’t have those ingredients on hand so I’ll keep that in mind for next time. I think this recipe makes for a great stand alone salad or a nice, fresh side dish. Hope you enjoy!

Step One: Dice cucumber & jalapeño

Step Two: Add juice of two limes, corn, salt and pepper

Step Three: Add mango, tomato, and avocado (not pictured)

Recipe:

2 ears of fresh, sweet corn (you could use about 2 cups of frozen, thawed sweet corn if fresh is not available)

1 medium to large cucumber - diced

1 jalapeño - seeded and diced (leave the seeds if you want it EXTRA spicy)

Juice of 2 limes (about 3-4 tablespoons)

1 large mango (I used a Kent variety but Ataulfo mangos would also be great, but you will probably need to use about 3 or 4 Ataulfos since they are generally smaller

2 large beefsteak tomatoes (any variety will do)

1 large avocado

Salt & Pepper to taste

Optional: cumin and garlic powder: 1/2 - 1 tsp. each