Garden Vegetable Salad

The heat wave arrived, which in Chicago means: approximately four days where the temperature is in the mid-nineties and the humidity makes the air feel like a warm wet blanket that has been specifically assigned to you. I love Chicago. I also love my window air conditioner in July with an intensity that borders on emotional dependency.

No-cook meals for the heat wave week: gazpacho every day for lunch, made on Sunday and stored in the refrigerator, cold and acidic and exactly right. Caprese salads from the farmers market tomatoes, which are peaking right now, mid-July, when they taste like the argument for summer. Rotisserie chicken from Costco dismembered into various cold applications: sliced over salad, shredded into wraps, eaten standing at the counter at 10 PM because that is when I remembered I needed protein.

I wrote a blog post about no-cook summer meals this week and it was the most-commented post I have had in months, which is evidence that I am not the only person standing in a hot kitchen in July thinking: there has to be a better way. The better way is: do not cook. Assemble. Blend. Refrigerate. Serve cold. This is summer cooking and I am fully committed to it.

Owen asked for "cold water" this week. Two words, correctly deployed, in response to a real need. I gave him cold water and he drank it and said "good" and went back to his trucks. He is seventeen months old and he is communicating wants and assessments and this is incredible and also very practical. He likes cold water. I will remember this.

The gazpacho was Sunday’s project, and it carried me through most of the week — but by Wednesday I wanted something I could see, something with crunch and color and a little more presence than a blended bowl. This garden vegetable salad became the lunch companion to my refrigerator gazpacho rotation: no heat, no hovering over anything, just good summer produce assembled into something worth eating. It fits exactly the philosophy I wrote about in that blog post — do not cook, assemble — and honestly, in ninety-five degrees with the air conditioner running full tilt, that’s the only philosophy I have energy to follow.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, diced
1 cup fresh corn kernels (from 1–2 ears, or thawed frozen)
1 medium zucchini, diced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup baby spinach or arugula
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper until emulsified. Set aside.
Prep the vegetables. Halve the cherry tomatoes, dice the cucumber and zucchini, slice the red onion thin, and cut the corn from the cob if using fresh ears.
Combine. In a large bowl, toss together the tomatoes, cucumber, corn, zucchini, red onion, and greens.
Dress and finish. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat. Scatter the torn basil on top.
Serve or chill. Serve immediately at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to 1 hour for a colder, slightly more melded salad. Best eaten the same day.

Nutrition (per serving)

Garden Vegetable Salad — The No-Cook Summer Meal That Saved My July