Recipe: Grilled Corn & Arugula Salad

When you're cemented to braces, certain foods are out of the question. Corn on the cob, for example. It's an awful, tragic shame to walk past beautiful, fresh, sweet corn at the farmers' market. Cheap and all, but what's the point when you know you can't eat it. Or can you?

So, in an effort to satiate my corn impulses, I've found a couple of salad recipes that use the corn kernels. One of them is particularly tasty, uses leftover grilled corn (great for all of that leftover corn from your most recent bar-b-que), and is quick to assemble. I got the recipe for Grilled Corn & Arugula Salad from Russ Parson's How to Pick a Peach. I had a few of the ingredients on hand, but not others, so my variation of the recipe was as follows. I halved the dressing because we tend to like a lighter coat of dressing on our salads. Also, keep in mind that you can use any lettuce or lettuce mix. However, the pepperiness of the arugula is a nice contrast to the other flavors, so it's more a flavor component than a backdrop to everything else.

Dressing
1/2 garlic clove, minced (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Salad
1/8 pound arugula
1/2 pound roma tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup scallions, chopped
2 ears corn, grilled & cooled, kernels sliced off

Whisk the dressing in a small bowl or measuring cup.

Lightly coat the arugula with some dressing in another bowl.

Finally, mix the tomatoes, scallions, and corn kernels in a small bowl. Coat with the remaining dressing.

To assemble, place some arugula on a plate. Spoon on the corn mixture.