To me, this is one of those quintessential summer dinners. It involves a lot of different vegetables, and is healthy and light, but also filling. The corn cakes are similar to the zucchini fritters I posted previously, so if you liked those, definitely try this out. These have quickly become a new favorite in my house, made even better by the tomato and avocado home-made salsa we served with them. The green bean salad is another light and healthy item with a lot of diverse flavors, but it takes very little time to throw together.

Recipe adapted from here for the corn cakes.

CORN CAKES

Ingredients (serves 6)
Corn Cakes-
4 ears of corn, shucked
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons buttermilk (could do milk if you don’t have buttermilk, or water if you avoid dairy)
2 tablespoon butter, melted
Canola oil for frying

Salsa (if it’s winter and you can’t find avocados, you could just serve with a store bought salsa)-
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoons basil, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon of lime or lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and pepper
2 avocados

1. Cut the corn off the cobs. Place 2 cups of the kernels in a food processor, pulsing until they are almost pureed. Place into a bowl with the rest of the corn kernels.

2. Place flour, cornmeal, onion, basil, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper into the bowl with the corn. Mix well. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and butter and mix until incorporated. Don’t over mix. I did the previous steps in the morning, and then covered the bowl and placed it in the fridge at this point. I then removed it from the fridge 20 minutes before I planned to cook the cakes.

3. Before cooking the corn cakes, prepare the salsa. To do this, mix all of the ingredients, minus the avocado, in a bowl. Add the avocado right before serving.

4. Heat a large skillet with enough canola oil to cover the bottom over medium heat. Place a drying rack on a pan next to the skillet.

5. Once the oil is hot, place the batter into the pan, one heaping tablespoon at a time. Cook 4-5 cakes at a time. Fry 1-2 minutes on each side to make sure the cake turns a nice golden brown. Once done, place on the drying rack to cool.

6. Serve warm with the salsa. If you need to prepare these ahead of time, you can rewarm them up in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes.

GREEN BEAN SALAD

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 bag (2-3 handfuls) of green beans
1/2 a red onion, chopped
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 oranges, cubed
Salt and pepper
Olive oil and white balsamic vinegar for the dressing

1. Microwave the green beans for a few minutes, just to soften them. Mix first four ingredients in a bowl. Then top with salt and pepper to taste. Lastly, drizzle with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar and toss to coat.