Golden Corn Salad

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

By October, young plants should be well established and able to survive the rigors of winter, which they do very well in my Zone 6 Pennsylvania garden. The salad then can be harvested all winter long. Late the following spring, the plants bolt and run to seed.

After the plants are mature and begin dropping their tiny white seeds, just pull them up and stuff them upside-down into brown paper bags.ate and label the bags and set them aside in a cool, dry place for a month or so — until the plants are brittle. Then shake the seeds loose into the bottom of the bag and put them away in envelopes in a tightly closed jar.

Date your seeds carefully — if you store them in a cool, dark closet, they should remain viable for up to three years. In early spring or fall, you can plant the seeds the same time you would plant spinach; make additional sowings every two to three weeks. Since it is more heat tolerant than common corn salad, the golden corn salad does not bolt as quickly either. Thus it can be planted later in the spring for a harvest of greens well into early summer.

Food historian William Woys Weaver features golden corn salad in his book 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From. Weaver also is a contributing editor to Gourmet magazine and a professor of culinary arts at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Golden Corn Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

The following recipe is intended to be adjustable to many tastes and preferences; the important thing is to use a dressing that accentuates the fresh ingredients you have selected. I prefer hazelnut oil, but that is only one of several good choices. Experiment with other nut oils to find your favorite. (By the way, the hazelnut dressing also is excellent over potato salad.)

Keep in mind that all varieties of corn salad are delicate, so add the dressing just before you serve the greens; otherwise the vinegar may cause them to wilt.

My list of optional ingredients is such that you can add one or two, or all of them, depending on how filling you want the salad to be.

Salad

6 ounces (about 8 cups) golden corn salad, or a mix of golden corn salad and chopped spinach

Optional ingredients:
1 to 2 cups diced croutons (plain, with no extra flavorings) 
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Dressing (see recipe at right)
For garnish, 2 ounces thinly sliced ham or half a small Italian Sopressata sausage
Also, small pansies, violas or violets

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print