Broiled Sweet Corn Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Make this Broiled Sweet Corn salad as a side for any summer sun-soaked meal. Bonus: enjoy the leftovers (should there be any) as a salsa, quesadilla filling, toast topping, or tossed with some cooked grains.

We love growing ourselves some sweet corn in our farm garden; even more, we love pairing said sweet corn with our cherry tomatoes! This year’s sweet corn “garden” is poppin’ off, so to speak, so we’ve been lucky enough to be enjoying lots of corn-centric meals.

We took notes from last year’s corn garden and planted more, more often, this year! It disappears as soon as we bring it in from the field. While you can’t go wrong with corn on the cob (or off, tossed in some butter!), it’s always fun to mix it up a little — in this case with onions, poblano pepper, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and a limey dressing.

This broiled corn recipe (from Food 52: Best Charred Corn Salad) caught our eye because roasted corn is just delicious enough to warrant turning on the oven, despite the numerous heat waves we’ve been enduring this summer. Plus, if you do not dare turn on your oven during the heat of summer, you could use the grill instead (with some slight modifications to the preparation — grilling the corn on the cob, then cutting the kernels from the cob; grilling the pepper, onion, avocado whole or halved, then slicing & dicing)

This dish makes two trips into the broiler. First the corn goes in with sliced onion and diced poblano pepper for just a few minutes. Then you toss everything and add the avocado (and a few cherry tomatoes, in our case) to the mix, putting it all back under the broiler for a final blast of heat. Once everything has a little char, you simply toss it together with halved cherry tomatoes, dressing and top with fresh herbs.

Broiling the avocados may sound like a strange move, but it results in a lovely flavor and texture! It also seems to help the avocado pieces hold their color (no browning, even when leftovers are kept in the fridge for a day or two!), and it’s especially great if the only avocados you can find happen to be a little firm (it helps soften them up nicely and coaxes out a little more flavor for those less-than-perfectly-ripe avocados).

The original recipe has you toss all the tomatoes in at the end, after broiling the other elements. I like adding just a few tomatoes in for the second round under the broiler because I think it adds a little something in the way of tomato juiciness. It is excellent both ways, though, so do whatever suits your preference!

The only other tweak I made from the original recipe was to add vinegar to the dressing. I thought it needed just a little more kick than the lime offered to brighten up the flavors. (Oh, I also increased the amount of tomatoes, because if you’re not using a whole pint of cherry tomatoes for one salad, is it even a summer salad?)

I used a medley pint because I thought it created a nice rainbow of a dish (and aren’t we supposed to be eating the rainbow whenever possible?). With the corn, a purple onion, medley of tomatoes, and fresh herbs that’s about as close to the full rainbow as you can get!

This broiled corn salad is sure to be the star of your next picnic or potluck.

Broiled Corn Salad with Cherry Tomatoes & Lime Dressing

Adapted (barely) from Food 52: Best Charred Corn Salad

Ingredients:

5 ears of corn

1 poblano pepper, de-seeded and chopped into small pieces

½ red onion, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 pinches kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 large or 2 small avocado, cubed

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vinegar (distilled whitte, apple cider, or white wine)

½ teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon cayenne or Aleppo pepper (or a mix)

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 handful fresh basil and/or mint leaves, roughly torn

Method:

Make the dressing: combine lime juice, vinegar, honey, pepper flakes and olive oil in a bowl (or jar) and whisk (or shake) to emulsify. Set aside.

Cut kernels from corn cobs and spread in an even layer onto a sheet pan.

I find it easiest to do this directly over the sheet pan — that way you don’t need to dirty a large bowl, and most of the kernels collect right onto the sheet pan! If this is a new-to-you task, here’s a How-To prep corn tutorial from Serious Eats — just replace the large bowl with sheet pan.

Begin preheating your broiler while you arrange diced pepper and sliced onion with the corn on the sheet pan. Drizzle everything with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place in oven under broiler for about 3-5 minutes. Keep a close eye on it as things tend to go quickly under the broiler!

Remove sheet pan from oven and give the corn, onion, and pepper a quick toss. Add avocado to the pan, and a few of the tomatoes. Place sheet pan back under the broiler for about 2-3 more minutes, until you see some browned edges, and you may hear the kernels beginning to “pop.”

Scrape the corn, onion, pepper, avocado, tomatoes, and any juices, into a large bowl or platter. Add the remaining tomatoes and dressing and toss everything together. Top with fresh herbs and serve.

Enjoy!