Sweet Corn and Bean Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Here’s a tasty salad recipe from Enright CSA member Tina Michel—a little too late for our sweet corn harvest, but we’ve got salad greens coming this week, so if you have some frozen corn, you’ll be all set. I decided to use the scanned recipe she sent as the illustration, because you can always tell a well-loved recipe by how beat-up and stained it is (or at least you could when people actually had paper recipes). But I’m not sure you can read it from the photo, so here’s the recipe in readable (and copyable) form.

Corn & Bean Salad
4 ears sweet corn, fresh or frozen (thawed if frozen)
2 medium red bell peppers
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsps. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsps. Dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
1 16-oz. bag dried white beans, prepared according to package, or 2 16-oz. cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch scallions (green onions), trimmed and cut into thin slices
2 cups fresh mixed bitter greens such as arugula or curly endive (optional)

Place corn and bell peppers on foil–lined cookie sheet and sprinkle corn with vegetable oil. Roast corn and peppers in oven for 30-35 minutes, turning occasionally, until corn is light brown on all sides and pepper skins are blistered and charred. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Place peppers in a plastic bag and twist tie top; set aside to cool for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, use a sharp knife to cut the kernels from the corn cobs. Discard cobs. Remove the peppers from the plastic bag and use a blunt knife to scrape away as much of the burnt skin as possible; rinse under cold water and cut peppers into thin slices.

In small bowl, use a wire whisk or fork to combine the lemon juice, vinegar, and mustard. Set aside. In a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and add the corn kernels and drained beans. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until heated through. Add vinegar mixture, roasted red peppers, sliced green onions, and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Toss gently but thoroughly to mix.

Serve bean salad warm, on bed of mixed greens, if desired. Makes 8 servings.