This Farm Stand Salad is loaded down with spring and summer veggies and drizzled in an herby delicious basil vinaigrette. Fresh and delicious, this is a perfect summer dinner salad.
I don’t know about you, but as soon as the weather gets warm, all I want to eat are salads. Even if elements of the salad are warm or hot (and some of the best ones are like this) salads still just feel like warm-weather food to me.
This salad is inspired by the farm stands I used to pass on the back roads of farm country Pennsylvania - the ones selling fresh ears of corn, bursting ripe summer tomatoes and fresh herbs and greens.
I have yet to encounter farm fresh produce like that where I live now, but to be fair I don’t do that much back roads driving anymore. I need to add that to my summer bucket list this year, now that it’s safer to go out into the world again.
Why is the Farm Stand Salad so good?
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Fully loaded with a variety of vegetables that can be swapped to use what you have on hand.
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Healthy
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Fresh veggies for lots of vitamins and minerals
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Easy to make
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Delicious for lunch or dinner!
Ingredients:
Arugula: I used peppery arugula for the base of this salad because it holds up well against the rest of the vegetables, but feel free to use any greens you have on hand. This would be great with spinach, romaine, or a spring mix instead of arugula.
Potatoes: waxy red potatoes are fantastic in this, but Yukon Golds would be great too. Russets aren’t ideal but they would work if you cut them into small enough pieces.
Sugar Snap Peas: one of my all-time favorite spring vegetables. If you don’t have them available, you could also use snow peas, asparagus, or broccoli instead.
Corn: While I generally toast up the corn in a pan for this recipe, you could leave it raw and it would still be absolutely delicious! Fresh, canned, or frozen work here – you just want to make sure it’s as dry as possible before adding it to the skillet to toast.
Red Onion: I adore red onion in a salad, but you could use shallots instead. You could use a yellow onion too, but I tend to prefer those to be cooked rather than raw.
Tomatoes: grape or cherry tomatoes cut in half are my absolute favorite, but you could dice a Roma or beefsteak tomato as well.
Basil Vinaigrette: I love this quick and easy dressing, but any store-bought dressing would work equally well here. I think an herby dressing works the best with the rest of the flavors.
To Make the Farm Stand Salad
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Start by roasting your potatoes and snap peas. Quarter the potatoes, drizzle with olive oil and season them with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and add the trimmed snap peas, and roast for an additional 10 minutes.
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Either trim the kernels off of two ears of corn with a knife or use 1 cup of canned or frozen corn. While the potatoes are roasting, toast the corn in a skillet with a teaspoon of olive oil until it browns. Set aside until the potatoes are done.
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Slice the onion and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
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To make the dressing, add the basil, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar into a blender or food processor. You’re only making a little bit of dressing, so a mini food processor is ideal for this job. If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you could chop the basil and garlic finely by hand, and mix it all together in a bowl. Blend the dressing together and add up to a tablespoon of water if needed to thin it out. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
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Place half of the greens into each bowl, and then top with the potatoes, snap peas, corn, red onion, and tomatoes. Drizzle with the basil vinaigrette.
Enjoy!
2
Sara Rauckhorst
5 Min
25 Min
30 Min
Farm Stand Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 10 ounces red potatoes, quartered
- 6 ounces sugar snap peas, ends trimmed
- ½ tablespoon olive oil + 1 teaspoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 ears of corn, or 1 cup of canned or frozen corn
- ¼ cup red onion, sliced thin
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 5 ounces arugula
- ½ cup basil, stems trimmed
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon water (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- On a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment, place the quartered potatoes and drizzle them with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the potatoes in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove sheet from the oven, add the trimmed snap peas, and replace sheet in the oven for another 10 minutes.
- While the potatoes are cooking, either trim the kernels of corn from the cobs or measure out 1 cup of canned or frozen corn, and toast it in a skillet with 1 teaspoon of olive oil until browned.p
- Place half the arugula into two bowls, and top with the potatoes, peas, corn, onions and tomatoes, and then drizzle with the Basil Vinaigrette.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add all of the ingredients except for water and blend until smooth. Add the water a teaspoon at a time if needed to thin the dressing out. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
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