Can it be?  The end of summer already!  Noooooooooooooooo :-(

Console yourself with a main dish salad, perfect for vegetarians, filling and delicious but light enough for a balmy, end of summer eve.  If you’d like to up the ante for hearty eaters, just add some roasted chicken.

Everything is in season right now, so take advanatge of the bounty of summer!

Corn & Strawberry Salad

8 stalks asparagus

1 ear corn

2 pickling cucumbers

3 large heirloom tomatoes

2 carrots

1 red pepper

8 strawberries

4 large basil leaves

1/4 sweet onion

1/2 cup drained garbanzo beans

4 Tbl diced goat cheese

1/2 large avocado, diced

Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.  Boil corn for 3 minutes, remove and set aside. Put asparagus spears into pot and lower heat.  Cook for about 2 minutes, remove and set aside.

Dice cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, red pepper basil and onion and divide into four bowls.  Remove kernels from corn and add to bowls.  Chop asparagus and add.

Top with garbanzo beans, goat cheese and avocado.  

Dress with your favorite vinaigrette.

Serves 4

Fresh corn is in season!  Look for ears that have kernels to the bottom (if they don’t it was picked too early) and with corn silk that is not brown or black.

I love simple, boiled corn.  I just drop it into boiling water and boil for 3 minutes.  No need to go longer.  I also love to sauté corn, which requires the kernels to be cut off before cooking, which means that kernels are going to go off of my cutting board and all over the counter.  But it’s OK!  It’s worth the mess.

Chili powder is great with corn, and this easy recipe marries the corn with tofu and veggies. I like to finish my tofu with a drizzle of chili sesame oil.  If you don’t have any use regular sesame oil, but this chili oil gives everything color and a kick!

A light meal, and it couldn’t be any more summery!

Chili Corn with Sauteéd Tofu

Corn:

2 ears of fresh corn, kernels removed

1/2 tsp chili powder

salt, pepper to taste

Tofu:

1 block of firm or extra firm tofu

2 tsp teriyaki sauce (I like Soy Vey)

1 tsp black sesame seeds

2 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp chili sesame oil

Veggies:

5 large shiitake mushrooms (can sub any mushrooms you like)

1/2 yellow or sweet onion

1/2 red pepper

2 cups fresh veggies of your choice (I used broccoli, red cabbage and spinach)

olive oil

To prepare corn heat up a little olive oil and sauté for just a couple of minutes, until your desired crunchiness.  Sprinkle with chili powder, salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.

To prepare tofu heat a little oil in a sauté pan, dice tofu and add to hot oil.  Cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring often.  Add teriyaki sauce, sesame seeds and ginger, and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add garlic and cook unitl golden but NOT brown!  Turn your heat to simmer and drizzle with oil.

Meanwhile get your veggies going.  Chop up your onion and mushrooms, then heat a little oil and cook until the onion is golden.  Add the rest of your veggies and cook until desired doneness. 

I like to plate this dish in rows; a row of corn, then tofu, then veggies.

Serves 2-3

This is one of the side dishes that I prepared for my catering event! Corn is back at the farmers market, and at six corns for three dollars, you really can’t beat the taste and the price of this delicious vegetable.  Corn is fun because it can be incorporated into lots of different types of cooking and the sweet flavor is very versatile.

This corn recipe is really quick and easy!

Sautéed Summer Corn

3 cobs of fresh corn

2 cloves garlic

3 tbsp parsley

2 tsp vegan butter

onion powder

garlic powder

salt

pepper

olive oil

Start by heating up a generous amount of olive oil in a sauté pan.  Cut the corn off of the cob and add it to the hot oil, add minced garlic and allow the corn to cook.  When the corn is almost done toss in the vegan butter, then salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to taste.  Let the corn cook for just a few more minutes to let all of the flavors do a little dance and make friends.  Garnish the corn with fresh minced parsley.

You, my friend, are done already. Wasn’t that easy?

Serves 2-3