Weekend Recipe: Summer Succotash Salad

Cook's Country wanted to lighten up stodgy, old-school succotash by using fresh vegetables and minimizing the flavor-dulling cream and butter.

For a summer succotash salad recipe that lightens up succotash with fresh vegetables, we cooked all the vegetables in the same pot of well-salted simmering water, staggering their cooking times to ensure they all finished at the same time. Once the vegetables were tender, we rinsed them under cold water to stop their cooking and conserve their bright color. Most succotash salad recipes call for finishing the dish with butter or cream, but we opted for a light vinaigrette spiked with lemon juice, red onion and basil.

Summer Succotash Salad
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
½ onion, red (small), minced
¾ pound green beans, ends trimmed and cut in half crosswise
2 ears corn, kernels removed from cobs
½ pound frozen lima beans
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

INSTRUCTIONS

This salad can be kept covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day. If making the salad in advance, add the basil just before serving.

1. Stir oil, lemon juice, honey, red onion and salt and pepper to taste together in small bowl.

2. Bring 2 1/2 quarts water to boil in large saucepan. Add 1 teaspoon salt and green beans and cook for 1 minute. Add corn and lima beans and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain vegetables into colander and rinse under cold running water until cool. Drain vegetables well and transfer to serving bowl.

3. Toss vegetables with dressing to coat evenly. Stir in basil and season with salt and pepper. Serve.

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