Grilled Chicken Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

My sister recently made this Smitten Kitchen recipe for a family dinner and I am hooked. It's a bright and light summer salad filled with flavor. The dressing recipe makes a lot and can be kept for 5-6 days and used for other salads or as a marinade.  Pin It Now!

Charred Corn & Bean Salad

I jumped on board the "dense bean salad" meal prep trend and I am a fan. Being back in an office setting, meal prepping has made it easier to eat better meals at work. So far this has been a favorite.

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Fresh Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad

Corn salads are one of my favorite side dishes to serve at a summer barbecue. They can easily be scaled up or down based on your guest count and I have yet to make one that hasn't been a hit. I had 12 people over this past weekend and knew there was no way I'd have space on my grill to cook all the meat and corn on the cob, so I opted make this salad. I cooked the corn in the morning and prepared the salad in the afternoon so it was ready to go hours before anyone arrived. Your can also grill the corn for this if you prefer.

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Corn and Zucchini Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese

I was looking around for a recipe for a quick and easy weeknight dinner idea. I am loving all the summer produce available right now and wanted to incorporate that in to my meal. I wanted to keep it simple and luckily stumbled upon this recipe. The orzo salad makes an amazing side dish. I grilled some shrimp and added it on top to make a main course out of it. Just toss the shrimp (about 1/2 pound) with the zest of one lime, juice of half a lime, 1 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper and grill until cooked through. If you own one, a grill basket will make this step even easier.

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Fresh Corn and Ditalini Pasta Salad

I am a huge fan of pasta salads during the summer. I love how easy they are to make while still being popular items. It's easy to make a pasta salad from scratch and the dressing on this is so simple. No need to buy bottled dressing this time around. Feel free to adjust this pasta salad as you like. You can add more fresh summer veggies like red peppers or grilled zucchini- the options are unlimited. You can also add a splash of hot sauce to the recipe for an added kick.

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Fresh Corn and Tomato Salad

My office recently had a potluck and I decided to take advantage of all the delicious summer produce at the farmer's market. I found this recipe and it sounded like a great option. I prepped most of the salad the night prior and it received rave reviews at the potluck. This was the first food devoured by my coworkers and many for them wanted the recipe. If you're in the mood food for an easy, tasty summer salad, look no further.

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Grilled Corn with Herb Butter

I was looking for a way to make corn-on-the-cob a more exciting side dish. I love fresh sweet corn, and generally just salt and/or butter it. I was looking around for an herb butter recipe to spice up my usual salt and butter combo when I came across this recipe from Land O Lakes. It's very easy and adds a nice, subtle flavor to your corn.

I ended up adding more herb butter on top of my grilled corn since I was a big fan. You could probably switch the thyme for another herb if you prefer, but I wouldn't omit the garlic. I sliced the leftover corn off the cob and had a sort of corn salad the next day, which was very tasty (with a dab of extra herb butter of course).

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Fresh Corn Salad

With summer produce beginning to pop up in the grocery store, it's time to start enjoying corn again. This is something I do every time I visit my family since my little mountain town doesn't have the greatest corn selection. What my grocery store sells during the summer looks like the corn sold in America during the winter (which is not appetizing in any way). I was browsing through some Ina Garten recipes and found this extremely easy, yet tasty corn salad. The ingredient are simple, especially if you grow basil during the summer.

This makes a great side dish to any barbecue. It looks and tastes impressive, but once you make this, you'll realize that it requires minimal effort. If you're out of red onions, I imagine green onions would be a good substitue, but the salad would not be as colorful. You can also make the recipe with just 2 tablespoons each of the vinegar and oil if it looks like you have enough with that amount.

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Grilled Corn and Tomato Salad with Basil and Feta Cheese

If you're ever unsure of what kind of a side dish to make for a summer meal, corn salads never fail. Last year I was all about the southwestern corn salad, but this year I came across this Bobby Flay recipe and am obsessed. The ingredients sounded a bit odd at first. I couldn't imagine rice wine vinegar mixing well with feta cheese, but the combination is surprisingly good. I'm glad I got my fix of this when I was back in California since the sweet corn available in Switzerland isn't all that great. It makes me realize how well stocked the grocery stores in the US really are.

Last weekend I wanted to throw some asparagus on the grill, only to realize that for the Swiss, asparagus season ends in the Spring time. Living in a tiny village doesn't help either. I'm lucky if they have all the regular produce in stock. I've also realized that my stash of spices and Mexican food products that I brought here will probably run out sooner than expected. I've also started writing a list of things I need to start stocking up on every time I am visiting my family.

So all of you lucky enough to have an abundant supply of sweet corn this time of year, give this salad a try. It will not let you down. The original salad was made with blue cheese instead of feta, so use whichever you prefer. I also think you could easily sub a red onion or scallions for the sweet onion if you don't have access to one. This salad will still taste good the next day, but is definitely best served fresh.

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Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad

 
This weekend, the weather in Denver took it easy and stopped the nightly thundershowers for 2 evenings. This meant that grilling season was once again open, but it also meant there was no break from the 90+ºF heat. Since I'm not usually all that hungry in hot, muggy weather, I thought it would be nice to make a filling salad for dinner. I wanted something with some protein, but didn't feel like anything heavy.

My mom recently brought over the August edition of Real Simple magazine and it is filled with great salad ideas. Although I make salad often, I have never experimented with the types of salad dressing in the magazine. In this grilled chicken and corn salad, the dressing relies on rosemary for flavor, which is not an herb I typically think of putting into a salad. There's also a strong garlic flavor to accompany the rosemary, so for me, it was a great dish. I usually stick with basil, cilantro, or parsley to flavor a salad dressing, but I love this variation. If you're not into garlic flavors, cut back on the amount of garlic cloves you use. Also, if you don't feel like grilling meat, you could pull apart half a rotisserie chicken and the salad would still be good.

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Southwestern Corn Salad

I got a little bit excited when I saw sweet corn in the grocery store. Yes, I get excited about a lot of different foods, but there's something extra exciting about seasonal produce. I tend to go a little overboard at farmer's markets and produce stands. How am I supposed to resist perfectly ripened produce? I think part of it is genetic (at least that's my excuse) since my dad has been known to buy a dozen avocados when it's just him and my mom at home. I'm not complaining though since my produce overloads generally lead to many kitchen experiments. This one, luckily, was a success.

I've been wanting to try out a chipotle-lime vinaigrette for a few weeks now. I researched a bunch of recipes and found one that seemed like it would be the best (with a few little tweaks of course). And what would go better with a chipotle-lime dressing than a grilled corn salad? Ok there's probably a lot of other great options, but this is what I came up with. It's the perfect side dish for any summer barbecue. You could even add some grilled chicken to the salad make it a light summer dinner.

For the salad I just combine a lot of my favorite Southwestern ingredients. You could omit or add anything you want to this salad and it would still be great since it's the vinaigrette that really makes it amazing. It has chipotle peppers in it, but the sugar takes away that really spicy flavor and leaves you with all the delicious chipotle and lime flavors. If you're planning on throwing some steak or burgers on the grill anytime soon, don't forget to make this salad as well.

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