Rainbow Baby Tomatoes & Roasted Corn Summer Salad

This tomato corn salad will be on repeat all summer long as it’s so easy to make and everyone loves it!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SamsClubMag #CollectiveBias

Living in Pittsburgh, we NEED sun and summer.  And nothing screams summer like vacations, beach trips, and fresh veggies.  For me, summer cooking is all about ease, light & bright flavors, and deliciousness.  I mean let’s face it, no one really wants to spend hours over a hot stove or oven while your family and friends are outside enjoying the beautiful weather.

So this Rainbow Tomato Roasted Corn Summer Salad is perfect for you then!  Whether you’re having a backyard bbq, heading to the beach or just chilling out with friends.

Summer Skin Safety

But before we go to talking about this awesome recipe I want to take a minute and talk about summer sun safety.  Being outside you need to take caution and make smart choices. Use sunscreen, apply frequently, and hydrate!  Keep in mind you need to follow these ‘rules of summer’ whether you’re at the beach, hiking, working in the yard, or just out and about. 

Protect your skin – it’s the only one you have! All of these essentials you can pick up at your local Sam’s Club.  Plus what’s also awesome is Sam’s Club offers free health screenings on the second Saturday of every month.  The next one is scheduled for June 11, 2016.

Check with your local Sam’s Club to see if they offer this service and if so, when the next screening will be. Plus did you know Sam’s Club has a Healthy Living Made Simple online magazine?  It’s pretty cool!  It’s your ultimate place for all of your health and wellness needs.  Definitely check it out!

Tomato Health Benefits

Thanks to Wikipedia and many other awesome search engine results I found out a ton of information about just how great tomatoes are for you. 

• Just one medium tomato (approximately 123 grams) provides 22 calories, 0 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbohydrates (including 1 gram of fiber and 3 grams of sugar), and 1 gram of protein.
• Tomatoes are a rich source of vitamins A and C and folic acid.
• Tomatoes contain a wide array of beneficial nutrients and antioxidants, including alpha-lipoic acid, lycopene, choline, folic acid, beta-carotene, and lutein.
• Alpha-lipoic acid helps the body to convert glucose into energy. Some evidence suggests that alpha-lipoic acid can aid in blood glucose control, improve vasodilation and protect against retinopathy in diabetic patients and may even help preserve brain and nerve tissue.
• Choline is an important nutrient found in tomatoes that helps with sleep, muscle movement, learning, and memory. Choline also helps to maintain the structure of cellular membranes, aids in the transmission of nerve impulses, assists in the absorption of fat, and reduces chronic inflammation.

So yeah… why would I NOT have these in my diet?!  With all those health benefits alone I’d be a fool not to! So while I was at Sam’s Club I also picked up some avocados (YUM!) and mini cucumbers.

Let’s Make Tomato & Corn Salad

Now this salad took all of MAYBE 7 minutes to prepare and that’s even pushing it. 

1. Once all of the veggies were washed all I had to do was slice up the tomatoes (they are SOOOOOOOOOOO fresh and juicy right now – the smell was intoxicating!)
2. Next, cube up the cucumbers and avocado, chop the cilantro, and roast the corn. 

Chef’s Tip On Roasting Corn

So okay if you don’t want to roast ears of corn you can cheat. Now fresh corn is always, always best. If you really don’t want to roast them then here’s a quick trick:

1. Remove the kernels from the husk.
2. In a non-stick skillet add just a teensy bit of butter.
3. When the butter melts add in the kernels and saute for about 5-6 minutes. If you must use canned corn, rinse the corn and then saute.

This salad is one I can recall my Mom making all the time when we were little. Now I did tweak it a bit to make it my own. I don’t think Mom even knew what an avocado was – they weren’t really “mainstream” back when I was a kid. Heck, I don’t even know if my local Foodland sold them.

Also, Mom would have added peppers and onions to hers where as you can see, there are none in mine. I could have added red/yellow/orange peppers (never green as I hate those) but I didn’t have any on hand. Onions – yeah, never raw though shallots could have gone in.

Also if you want to kick up the vegetarian protein aspect of it beans or chickpeas would be killer in this!

This salad is one of those salads that you can totally make your own this summer.

• It’s portable and is totally Summer friendly! It’s great chilled or room temp. You can pack it up in your cooler, take it to the beach or to a picnic and not worry about having to keep it ice cold for hours on end!
• It’s TOTALLY customizable! Add whatever veggies you want to this! Cubed zucchini would be awesome!
• It’s a great last-minute side or main dish! There’s no need for marinades. Just chop, cube, slice and you’re ready to go!
• Turn it into a full-blown meal by adding cooked steak, chicken, or shrimp to it! FYI – grilled lime shrimp is EPIC with this!

Mom’s Signature Salads

This was one of those dishes Mom served at every summer party we had. It was inexpensive which meant she could make a ton and folks loved it. This was one dish folks went back for thirds and fourths then were always looking for extra to take home the next day. 

Mom always took straight from the garden veggies for hers.  Living where I do and working as much as I do I rely on Sam’s Club for all of my garden fresh veggies.  Have I mentioned just how much I love this store?!  I mean seriously awesome produce (and meats) plus tons of bulk items at a great cost!  I’m able to eat healthily without having to sacrifice quality or flavor!

Sam’s Club truly does take a vested interest in its members and cares about their health and wellness needs.  Ranging from sunscreen to tissue, excellent quality produce to meats – they care about what you put in and on your body.

Putting a Modern Twist On Mom’s Recipe

Now when I took my Mom’s recipe I made it more ‘modern’.  Obviously, I had to add the avocado just because they are pretty much the best thing in the world next to the bacon. 

And for my dressing, I just made a simple lime cilantro vinaigrette.  She would use bottled Italian in hers.  The first day I made this I had the salad as-is as a side dish to my grilled chicken.  Since I made so much (of both) the next day for lunch I just added in some of the chopped grilled chicken.  Mr. Fantabulous put some steak strips on his.

For More Than Just Salads!

But wait.. there’s more <insert grin!> This, if you chop the tomatoes smaller (pretty much small chunk size), makes one AMAZING burger topping as well as a topping for chicken or even bruschetta!  It’s so light and versatile that it’s truly adaptable to whatever you’re eating!

I’m actually working on how I can incorporate this on a pizza!  I’m thinking of a cilantro pesto sauce on the crust, some feta or cojita cheese with grilled shrimp.  Then when the pizza is done, top it with this salad.  I know, right!  Sounds INSANE!

This is one of the salads my Mom would pack up in a huge cooler and take with us when we’d go on our summer vacation to Sea World in Ohio.  It was only a weekend trip and it was probably something they saved up for all year long. 

We’d drive which what seemed like forever to get there (in all reality only about 3 hours).  Since we couldn’t afford to eat out Mom would make about 3 dozen eggs worth of egg salad sandwiches, bologna sandwiches, a big bag of chips, Faygo soda (it was always Grape for me), and a huge container of this salad.

Did You Get Stuck With The Rollaway Cot?

When we’d get to the hotel Dad would repack the cooler with ice and all 6 or so of us would pile into a motel room with me getting the rollaway cot.  Yeah, it sucked being the baby of the family as I got the crappy pseudo-bed. We’d spend all day at the park and somehow they’d come up with the money that we could have lunch there which usually consisted of a hot dog, soda, and ice cream cone. 

However, when we got back to the room we’d have this salad and more sandwiches. I didn’t mind as this salad was awesome though, to be honest, I picked out the tomatoes.  I just never got into them.  They were…squishy.  LOL

From Tomato Hater to Tomato Lover

Yeah, it wasn’t until maybe 2-3 years ago did I really give tomatoes their fair shake.  Actually, it was Mr. Fantabulous that talked me into giving them a try.  You see he LOOOOOOOOOVES white pizza with tomatoes and thinly sliced onions on them.  So we’d take turns picking out what we would have on our Friday night pizza.  He’d always ask for the white kind which I would make it but only half would get this stuff.  My side was plain or pepperoni.  Well, one day he asked me to make a whole pizza that way as he said “the pepperoni oil seeps into the rest of the pizza and I lose the flavor of the tomatoes and onions.”

Sigh… the things we do for our loved ones, huh? So like a good wife, I made the whole pizza with sliced tomatoes and onions. As I pulled it out it didn’t look bad, to be honest.  The tomatoes didn’t look “squishy” and the onions were browned. But as we ate I pulled my toppings off and gave them to him.  Well, I finished my first slice and wanted another however I was so busy yapping that I just grabbed another and bit into it… without taking off the tomatoes and onions.

Folks if you would have seen my reaction when I bit down and realized I had something foreign in my mouth you would have lost it.  My eyes got HUGE and I wasn’t sure what to do. Mr. Fantabulous realized what was ‘wrong’ and said “Suck it up Princess and try it.  Just chew.”  so I did.  And yeah, it was actually really… REALLY good!  I actually love cooked onions and roasted tomatoes.

But in this salad, the tomatoes aren’t roasted.  Yeah, that took me about 3 years to get the nerve up to eat a raw tomato that is still squishy. I’ll eat them like this, in a salad like this but I’m sorry I just can’t eat one on a sandwich, hoagie, or burger.  I’m weird like that.  Yet in this salad, just simply sliced in half alongside the other veggies and stuff they transform into something amazing!

So this summer, while you’re out sunning your bun (while wearing your sunscreen and being safe) make sure you whip up a big bowl of this salad!  This will definitely be the food hit of the summer!

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