Cucumber and Corn Salad

Nothing beats a yummy and cool cucumber salad in the heat of summer. I love this salad because it is sweet, refreshing, and pairs well with so many cookout and BBQ foods. On a night I am not utilizing my charcoal grill I especially love this Cucumber Corn Salad with some hot buffalo Air fryer chicken wings.

The Star Ingredients for Cucumber Corn Salad

Cucumber: I love semi-circle bites of cucumbers. I enjoy the texture of the seeds and the smooth edges of the half rounds. To get these cucumber semi-circles, slice the cucumber vertically, down the middle, then slice horizontally to form bite-sized pieces.

Cucumbers are a pretty easy vegetable to grow in your own backyard. However, not growing your own cucs? Any roadside cucumber will do or the tried and true English cucumber!

Corn: In my opinion, corn on the cob is best eaten while in season! As a kid, I had tasted too many flavorless corns on the cob from my Dad picking up a batch of ears off-season. Flavorless corn is so disappointing! Ergo, I now only buy fresh corn in-season. Thus, when corn is not in season I am all about purchasing some canned or even frozen corn. I am all about the canned produce, and I always have at least one can of corn in my pantry.

Sharper Tip:  An easy way to cut corn off the cob!

1. Start with two bowls, one large and one smaller.
2. Place the small bowl upside-down and inside the bigger bowl, so the small bowl is elevated beyond the rim of the larger bowl.
3. Break the corn cob in half.
4. Take the flat end of the and place it flush to the surface of the upside-down small bowl.
5. When you slice the corn kernels off the cob, the kernels fall into the big bowl! This method is less messy, so easy, and very satisfying.

Other Ingredients

Onion: For this recipe, I chose to incorporate red onion. I love the bite that it adds to this salad. Looking for something milder? You might try chives or green onion.

Basil: I used Thai Basil in this Cucumber and Corn Salad. The Thai pairs well with the flavors of rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Nonetheless, you could use cilantro, mint, or any other basil varietal.

Sesame Seeds: I omitted (forgot) the sesame seeds for the pictures in this recipe but I often add a little crunch to this salad. If you don’t have sesame seeds but want more texture you can use sliced almonds, peanuts, cashews, or sunflower seeds. Additionally nuts and seeds add a little more protein to your salad! Thus providing a more satiated bite. 

The Cucumber and Corn Salad Dressing

This Cucumber and Corn Salad dressing is delicious in many salad recipes. This dressing includes rice wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, sesame oil, and salt and pepper.

I especially love using this dressing on cucumbers because it gives off chinese cucumber salad vibes. Additionally, this salad is slightly sweet from the honey and corn and pairs well as a side to a spicy dish. I do love a sweet and spicy compliment.

Why I love making this Cucumber and Corn Salad

Here are a couple of reasons I enjoyed making this salad this summer. I had loads and loads of cucumbers from my cucumber plants! This salad is a great way to use up cucumbers. 

Furthermore, cucumbers are really easy to grow. So, in preparation for this salad, I like to make extra corn with dinner. Then, once the corn is cool, I’ll cut it off the cob and reserved it for this salad! 

Sharper Nutrition Fix: Cucumbers

Cucumbers are very low in calories and high in water. Because cucumbers contain so much water they are a great food to promote hydration.  Typically ~20% of the water we ingest comes from our food. So crunch away! What’s more, there are two main types of cucumbers, pickling and slicing. But I don’t care which one you decided to use in this salad recipe because all cucumbers are perfect in it.

So, what’s the difference?

• Slicing cucumbers tend to be longer and can be called seedless or European/English cucumbers.
• Pickling cucumbers tend to be shorter with bumps or spines on their skin.

Curious to learn more about cucumbers and hydration? Check out the article, “Contribution of Water from Food and Fluids to Total Water Intake: Analysis of a French and UK Population Surveys”.

Like this recipe? You might also like some of these other summer salads.

Creamy tomato and Herb Salad

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Yogurt Cilantro Lime Slaw