Avocado Corn Salad

A fresh summer mixture, this salad will mix up your typical guacamole.  With ingredients that appear throughout the summer months, this is a great side to add to grilled dishes or healthy appetizer to have in the kitchen for the family to snack on. A lot of these ingredients are perfect right now in the August and September months so seize the opportunity and make this dish before we head into the cool weather.

Corn and Avocado Salad
Ina Garten

Prep time: 30 min  Cook time: 5 min
Servings 12

Ingredients
Salt
4 ears of corn, shucked (2 lrg cans of corn)
4 ripe avocados, seeded, peeled & 1/2 inch diced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 pints grape tomatoes, sliced in 1/2 lengthwise
2 red bell pepper (skip if not a fan)
1 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup jalapeno peppers, seeded & minced
1 lime, zested
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Directions
1) In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the corn for 3 minutes until the starchiness is gone. Drain, and place the corn in ice water to stop the cooking process.

2) When the corn is cool, cut the kernels off the cob, cutting close to the cob, and place in a large bowl. * Easy way to bi-pass the first 2 steps...use canned corn. Still delicious and no effort!

3) Toss the avocados with the lemon juice and add to the bowl with the corn.

4) Add the tomatoes, red peppers, onion, jalapeno peppers and lime zest to your bowl.

5) Whisk the lime juice, olive oil, 2 tsp salt, pepper, garlic and cayenne pepper together in a small bowl and pour over the vegetables.

6) Toss well. Keep it refrigerated until ready to serve.

Other great salads to whet your summer appetite:
Strawberry Chicken Salad
Watermelon Arugula Salad 
Broccoli Salad 
Pioneer Pasta Salad
Buffalo Chicken Salad

Check out our Market Inspirations for Summer