What do you do when you spent the entire summer afternoon at the farmer’s market buying loads of fresh goodness, and suddenly dinner time is looming? You make a fresh salsa to end all fresh salsas – a grilled corn and cucumber salsa, to be exact! This comes together SO quickly and tastes like summertime in a bowl. This recipe is a twist on pico de gallo – using many of the same ingredients, but incorporating a few of my favorite summer additions – corn on the cob, and cucumber! I think you’re going to love it.

Ingredients:

2 cups cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 cup tomato, diced (I prefer roma tomatoes for salsa, but go with whatever you’ve got on hand)
1/4-1/3 cup red onion, finely diced
2 cobs of corn, grilled and cut from cob (I’ll share my favorite method for this below)
2 serrano peppers, seeded and diced
2 tsp minced garlic
2-3 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
3-4 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
Juice of 2 limes
1/4-1/3 cup plain greek yogurt (can substitute sour cream)
1/3 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Grill your cobs of corn. My favorite method is to grill the cobs while still in their husks. Pop them on the grill until the husks become charred.

Peel off the husks (be careful as they are hot) and pop them back on the grill for a few minutes until slightly charred.

I mean…..come on. Get in my tummy!!

Once these babies are grilled, use a knife to cut them from the cobs. Now that you’re a corn-grilling expert, let’s return to our regularly schedule recipe 🙂

2. Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, lime juice, cumin, and salt to make a crazy yummy dressing!

4. Wait until you are ready to serve, and then combine the dressing with the veggies. Voila! You’ve got a yummy, fresh, crisp summer salsa that is sure to please.

The corn adds a sweet crispness to the dish (or a sweet Christmas, if you’re my daughter who misheard me.)

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

Or, you can serve it my favorite way – atop a grilled chicken breast with melted monterey jack cheese.

The best thing about this recipe is, you can customize based on what you’ve got around. Get creative! If you aren’t a tomato fan, try substituting red bell pepper. Try omitting the yogurt for a non-creamy dressing. If you don’t have serrano peppers, try using jalapenos or a dash of ground cayenne. No limes? Try lemon juice. This is pretty forgiving and a great way to use up those delicious, garden fresh veggies.

Enjoy!