Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

This is resoundingly one of my go-to August dishes. It's safe to say that it's my mother's too, because she called me asking for the recipe just as I was whipping this up.

It's best with fresh corn on the cob, so make it up while the corn is fresh!

It serves 4 as a side dish, but my husband and I have been known to just chow down on it alone for dinner.

Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

(lightly adapted from Fine Cooking)

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter, divided
½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
1 medium zucchini, finely diced
2 heaping cups fresh corn kernels, cut from about 4 ears
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp ground corianger
½ tsp ground cumin
juice of ¼ lemon
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a dutch oven or very large skillet, melt ½ tbsp butter with ½ tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in onion and ½ tsp salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent. Remove heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 3 minutes, until onion is beginning to brown. Add in zucchini, and continue cooking until zucchini begins to shrink and lose some of its moisture, about 3 minutes more.

2. Add in remaining ½ tbsp butter, corn kernels, garlic and remaining ½ tsp of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until corn becomes bright, tender and caramelizes slightly, about 5 minutes. Add in coriander and cumin and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Remove pan from heat. Stir in lemon juice and 1 tbsp mint. Let sit for 2 minutes, then add in black pepper and additional salt to taste. Serve with additional mint sprinkled on top.

Three Bean Salad with Corn and Red Peppers

Sometimes I think my mother and I are the only people on the planet who love bean salads. There's something so delightfully passé about them. I always associate them with the '80s... Does anyone else?

When I was in elementary school, we had several Canadian Living seasonal cooking magazines, and inevitably the summer ones had bean salads in them. Whenever the teachers had lunch & learn sessions at school, the library would be set up with tons of food with a mandatory gigantic bowl of bean salad. As a kid, I just assumed that they were making bean salads out of the Canadian Living magazines, because that was the logical assumption to make.

I'm all about the logic.

I'd lobby to bring back the bean salad into vogue. It's healthy, filling, fibre rich, and, when done right, colourful. Plus, it makes a quick and easy lunch to bring.

So, now, my go to bean salad recipe is based off a Canadian Living recipe: Red Barn Bean and Corn Salad. It serves 12 and keeps a decent amount of time in the fridge which especially important if you're, like me, not serving 12 people at once.

If you're alone in liking bean salads in your house, be prepared to be eating this for the better part of a week. It makes about 9 cups worth!

But, it's way better than those drenched salads from the supermarket, and you know you love it. So go ahead, grab a gigantic spoon and dig in.

Three Bean Salad with Corn and Red Peppers

(adapted from Canadian Living)

Ingredients

1 14oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 14oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 14oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup finely chopped sweet onion
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
½ cup celery, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 tbsp dried basil (you can use ¼ cup fresh, if you anticipate no leftovers)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

½ cup apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Mix together first 9 ingredients, chickpeas through parsley in a large bowl. Toss well. In a measuring up, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over bean mixture, toss well and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to let flavours meld together.

How easy was that?