Kitchen Curious: Make this crunchy summer salad, a delicious reward for little effort

When assembling a salad, I usually don’t follow a recipe. It’s simply a matter of using what’s on hand while attempting to balance color, texture and flavor. But while flipping through Joshua McFadden’s “Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables” (Artisan Books, 2017) for inspiration the other day, the stunning photo for Corn and Tomato Salad with Torn Croutons screamed, “Eat me! And don’t change anything!”

McFadden’s melange will be especially satisfying to folks who seek crunch in every bite. The croutons are key. You can use store-bought ones, but it doesn’t take long to make your own and they’ll taste far superior. Also, his technique of soaking sliced scallions in ice water is a good one. A trick that he uses only for salads — not cooked recipes — the water bath tempers their bite and crisps them up. Lastly, he prefers to eat the corn kernels raw but notes that the cobs could be grilled first. My trick to beat the heat and save some time: keep them in the husk and zap them in the microwave.

“This is a perfect hot-summer midweek meal, for which so little effort is required for such delicious reward,” writes McFadden.