Summer Vegetable Salad

This summer vegetable salad features the best of the season’s veggies: green beans, tomatoes, corn, and a toasted sesame ranch dressing.

The other day, a restaurant near our house hosted a special “summer vegetable” dinner menu, of the 4-course + wine pairings variety. We jumped at the chance because it’s one of the best restaurants in town, and we’re all about celebrating veggies, which aren’t often in the spotlight here in meat-loving Indiana. It was fabulous. We’re still talking about the ramen with smoked onion dashi (so flavorful). The other highlight was unexpected: a simple summer vegetables salad and this intensely flavorful sesame buttermilk dressing. Here’s our attempt at trying to recreate that summer vegetable salad.

What’s in this summer vegetable salad?

We love trying to recreate our favorite restaurant dishes at home. It’s never quite like the real thing, but usually does the trick. This summer vegetable salad is pretty close to what we remember of the original. The sesame ranch dressing is out of this world. The way the savory sesame plays off the juicy tomatoes and sweet corn kernels is fantastic. It’s a perfect way to use the summer produce that’s abounding at our farmer’s markets this time of year.

Here’s what’s in this summer vegetable salad:

• Baby greens: we like to use a mix for color and texture contrasts
• Cherry tomatoes: use multi-colored for the most vibrant look
• Green beans: here we used both yellow wax beans and standard green beans
• Corn: fresh sweet corn adds a bright pop
• Sesame ranch dressing: our Healthy Ranch Dressing is given a makeover by stirring in a little toasted sesame oil: it’s divine!

How to blanch green beans

To make the summer vegetable salad, you’ll blanch the green beans and wax beans. If you’ve never blanched beans before, it’s very easy! Here are the basic steps:

• Trim the green beans (here’s a trick on How to Trim Beans, Fast.)
• Place the beans in a large pot of boiling water for a few minutes until they are tender and bright green. It should take about 3 to 4 minutes. Make sure to taste test!
• Move them to an ice bath, a big bowl with ice water. Placing them in the ice bath preserves the bright green color! We also use this method in a main dish summer salad, Nicoise Salad.

Making sesame ranch dressing

Outside of blanching the green beans, there’s no other cooking to this summer vegetable salad! Wash and cut the remaining vegetables, then whisk up the ranch dressing. The hint of sesame in the creamy dressing is oh so good!

One tip: Make sure to buy toasted sesame oil, not plain sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil has a strong sesame flavor and is used for bringing in a sesame flavor to dishes, whereas sesame oil has a neutral flavor and is used for cooking.

This summer vegetable salad recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use our Vegan Ranch Dressing.

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Looking for salad recipes?

Outside of this summer vegetable salad, here are a few favorite salad recipes:

• The BEST Kale Salad
• Strawberry Spinach Salad
• Nicoise Salad
• Caribbean Black Bean Salad
• Radish Chopped Salad Recipe
• Cucumber Salad with Vinegar
• Classic Vegan Potato Salad
• Italian Vegan Pasta Salad
• Wedge Salad with Potato Chips
• Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
• Easy Bean Salad
• Best Creamy Coleslaw
• 40 Salad Recipes for People Who Hate Salads
• Greek Salad
• German Cucumber Salad
• Watermelon Salad with Feta & Cucumber

Last updated: January 2020