This is one of my favorite parts of summertime, fresh produce from my garden and sweet corn from the field! Although this year is a little different because my garden was hit hard by hail the beginning of June, so I don’t actually have the fresh tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro growing right in my backyard this year.
The sweet corn, fortunately, did recover for the damaging storms and is just starting to be ready to be picked and eaten. Did you know that about 98% of the corn fields that you see are actually field corn, not the sweet corn that you eat? Field corn can be used many ways, such as feed for livestock, turned into ethanol for in our vehicles, made into plastics, and turned into sweeteners in foods and beverages.
On our family farm in Iowa we plant mostly field corn. My husband does leave a little space so we can have a sweet corn patch. With a whole acre of sweet corn this year to pick, my husband’s family likes to get together and freeze a lot of it to enjoy all year-long. My favorite recipe, the one that I use every year to freeze our corn, can be found right here.
One of my favorite ways to eat fresh sweet corn is to grill it on our Big Green Egg. It gets a little smokey flavor to it and is just delicious! I always try to grill extra corn so I can use the leftovers in my grilled corn salsa recipe. It’s so easy, especially if you have most of the ingredients growing in your own garden!
Ingredients
- 3 cups of corn, grilled
- 4 cups of tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 1 sweet red pepper
- 3 jalapeños
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/2-1 lime, juiced
- 2-15 oz cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- Fresh ground pepper, to taste
- Remove husks and silks from corn. Place fresh corn on the grill at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, rotating occasionally.
- When corn is cooked, set aside and let cool.
- After corn is cool, cut kernels from cob and place in a large bowl (or ice cream bucket).
- Place tomatoes, onion, red pepper, jalapeños (remove some seeds if you don’t want the salsa to be as spicy), and cilantro in a food processor and chop ingredients.
- Placed the chopped ingredients in the large bowl with the corn.
- Squeeze the lime juice over the ingredients.
- Rinse the black beans and place in the large bowl also.
- Add the oregano, garlic salt and fresh ground pepper. Mix well.
- Refrigerate and let flavors mix for a while. Enjoy!
Here’s another Salsa recipe you will love!