Summer Corn Salad

I remember as a child, the best thing about a mixed salad was the kernels sweetcorn that laced through the lettuce leaves and tomato slices. I remember the Pizza Hut salad bars, and how I'd get scoops and scoops of sweetcorn.  Then there are also the ears of hot steaming sweetcorn in the winter sold on the streets for literally pennies.  I've always liked sweetcorn.

 It had felt like summer today.  The sun was blinding, I rolled up my skirt and I felt ever so slightly bronzed.   I love that numb dazed feeling I get when I'm in the sun.  It's not so much that it makes me happy or comfortable, my senses are just dulled and it's like..it's like being in a sauna almost.  Where all you feel is the heat.  Emotionally and physically dominated by just that heat, that blinding sunlight.  Anyway.  It was picnic weather and it was apt for something like this. Fresh and light as it can be, with crunchy seeds, tingling heat from the chili, a mellow kick from the red onion, bursts of freshness from the abundance of mint leaves.  It's that salad at a BBQ.  That salad everyone talks about as they eat the meat.  I remember the last time I was at a BBQ (it was a lobster BBQ, but that's besides the point.  Oh and that was in my Uni days - living the student budget life), that salad was an amazing potato salad tossed with plenty of spring onion and wholegrain mustard.  Well, this should be your salad at your next BBQ. 

It's only May.  I can't wait to attend the first BBQ of the year.  I find few things as relaxing and comforting than the thought of al fresco dining in the summer. 

Serves 4 as a small side
Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks
Ingredients
400g tinned corn, no salt or sugar added, drained
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 lemon, zest and juice (amount of juice to taste)
1 handful mint leaves, chiffonade or torn
1/2 green chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
1/4 cup mix of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, toasted
extra virgin olive oil

Method
Mix all the ingredients together and adjust quantities of olive oil and lemon juice to taste.  Season and serve immediately. Or alternatively, add the seeds and chop the mint just before serving.