Avocado Tomato Corn Salad

AVOCADO TOMATO CORN SALAD INGREDIENTS

For The Salad

• Corn cobs - juice nice ripe juicy fresh corn cobs for this recipe
• Orange bell peppers - you can use red or green, I just prefer orange ones for the colour in this salad.
• Vine tomatoes - deseeded and sliced
• Avocado - choose ripe but still quite firm to the touch, so that you can toss them in dressing without them becoming squashed.
• Red onion - thinly sliced
• Butter

For The Chimichurri Dressing

• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Dried oregano
• Flat leaf parsley
• Chilli flakes - I use Arbol chilli flakes - they add a fiery kick!
• Cloves of garlic
• Pinch of sea salt

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

• Chopping board
• Sharp vegetable knife
• Tin foil
• Roasting tin or baking tray
• Teaspoon
• Tablespoon
• Food processor
• Serving bowl

HOW TO MAKE AVOCADO TOMATO CORN SALAD

• Preheat the oven to 200C / 400 F / Gas Mark 6

• Prepare the sweetcorn - lay one sheet of tin foil onto the kitchen worktop - lightly grease the middle of the foil with a little of the butter. Lay the corn cobs on to the foil sheet and spread the rest of the butter onto the tops of the corn cobs. Lay another sheet of tinfoil on top and scrunch up the edges to seal the corn into a parcel ready for cooking.

• Cook the sweetcorn and peppers - take a large roasting tin and lay the tin foil package at one side and place the bell peppers at the other end. You roast the peppers whole, no need to add oil, seasoning or slice. Place the tray into the oven and cook for 30-45 minutes or until the peppers are nice and chard and the corn kernels tender. Remove them from the oven and place to one side to cool down so that you can handle them.

• Deseed and slice the tomatoes - then put to one side

• Slice the red onion - then put to one side

• Slice the corn kernels from the cob - to do this hold the corn cob stood on its end on a clean chopping board and using a sharp knife gently run it down the length of the corn cob to cut off the kernels. It's nice to keep some of the kernels stuck together in little lines, it just looks extra tasty that way.

• Peel the charred peppers - gently peel away the skin from the charred peppers, this will just rub away easily. Then remove the seeds and chop the cooked pepper flesh.

HOW TO MAKE CHIMICHURRI DRESSING

• Make the Chimichurri dressing - simply add all the dressing ingredients to the food processor and blitz into a thick paste.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE AVOCADO TOMATO CORN SALAD

• Peel and chop the avocado - just before you are ready to assemble the salad, peel and chop the avocado into chunks. It's best to do this just before you're ready to make the salad otherwise the avocado flesh will discolour and look awful.

• Assemble the salad - take a large salad bowl and put in the corn, chopped peppers, tomatoes, avocado and sliced onions. Then spoon over the Chimichurri dressing.

• Toss the salad in the Chimichurri dressing - gently toss all the ingredients together to coat everything with the delicious salad dressing. Then serve - you can eat this as a warm corn and avocado salad or serve chilled - it's super tasty either way.

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CAN I MAKE THIS SALAD IN ADVANCE?

Sure you can - when I'm making this ahead of time I usually roast the corn and peppers, cool and prepare them. Then I chop the tomatoes and onions and make up the dressing. I store the salad undressed in an airtight container in the fridge.

Then just before serving I peel and chop the avocado and then toss it all in the dressing.