New Jag Salad

September 15, 2014

“People have tried and they have tried, but sex is not better than sweet corn.” -Garrison Keillor

 

Many moons ago, I wrote this post, confessing to being a “jag eater.”  If you don’t feel like plundering the archives, I’ll give you the basic jist: a “jag eater” is someone who gets a little obsessed with a certain food for a period of time. As in, wanting to eat it daily obsessed. In my teens and twenties, I was a serious jag eater; I could make a huge pot of ratatouille or red beans and rice and eat it daily, week after week.

As I’ve gotten older, the jags have gotten fewer and farther between, but once in a while, I’ll fall in love with something and Bam! Just like that, I’m on a jag.

At the beginning of summer, I made this salad, and after the first bite, I immediately boarded the Jag Wagon.  I’ve been making huge batches of this salad and munching away on it all week, all summer long. I’m even eating the stuff for breakfast, much to my husband’s horror.

His horror won’t have to last much longer, since the success and deliciousness of this salad depends on summer ingredients like farm-fresh green beans and corn, and let’s face it, the end is near (sob!) for those sorts of things.

For some of you, it might be over already–parts of South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado have already seen some snow! Hopefully, though, most of you have a few more blessed weeks of summer produce.

So get crackin’, people! Make this big bowl of yumminess while you still can. I can attest that it keeps well in the refrigerator for several days, so if you become  a little enamored with this salad, like I did, you have some happy eating in store for you.

 

 

Green Bean, Sweet Corn and Feta Salad

serves 4 (but recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, if you are on a jag)

 

8 ounces very thin, fresh green beans

2-3 ears of fresh sweet corn, shucked

1 small shallot, chopped

1/2 cup good-quality feta cheese, crumbled

3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons toasted pecans, chopped (optional)

a good glug of your favorite raspberry vinaigrette (I actually use Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette, one of the few bottled dressings I like)

 

Cook and Shock the Green Beans:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook until just crisp-tender, about 5 minutes, depending on the size and freshness of the green beans. Remove the green beans from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge into a big bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Remove with a slotted spoon and pat dry. Cut the green beans into bite-sized pieces.

Add the corn to the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes. You just want to blanch the corn; it should still be crisp. Plunge corn into the ice water. Drain, pat dry, and remove kernels from the corn cobs with a sharp knife.

Combine beans, corn kernels, shallot, feta, parsley and pecans in a large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette and season to taste with salt and pepper.

{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }

Annette September 15, 2014 at 8:08 am

It’s great with smoked salmon, too!

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:16 pm

Easy on the pepper, though, right?

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Shannon September 15, 2014 at 8:24 am

Looks delicious! I had never heard the term “Jag eater” but I definitely am one. Unfortunately it is for foods that I buy instead of make myself. I’m totally nagging on our grocery store’s homemade guacamole. So much so that I have good everyone in our family, “if you go to store, buy guacamole. Don’t even call to ask. Just do it and I will reimburse you.”

Also, that Garrison Keillor quote is golden.

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:17 pm

Shannon,

Guacamole is always binge-worthy, if you ask me.

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Living the Dream September 15, 2014 at 8:59 am

Yup, I’m a “jag eater” too. I never knew it had a name. I call those kind of eating episodes “pb&j syndome,” because I noticed it from my childhood love affair with peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (toasted, even better!). This corn salad looks delish!

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:18 pm

Living the Dream,

I grew up with a kid who ate nothing but pb&j for YEARS. His mother fretted about it and took him to the doctor and he told her to “back off lady, he’ll be fine!”

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Arnebya September 15, 2014 at 10:48 am

Well looka there. You just described my tendency by describing one of your own. Huh. *raises hand as jag eater* For me, though, it’s not always a full dish, but one thing. Onions, right now. I have to have onions with everything. Fried. Fried onions, mushrooms, and green peppers with lots of pepper, no matter the meal, that’s what I need on the side or on top. Oh, and Brussels sprouts. I need those with it and it’s been weeks. Weirdo present.

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:19 pm

Arnebya,

I could get with ya on the onion side dish, but Brussels sprouts? Gaaa, those things are like intestinal Chernobyl.

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Jennifer September 24, 2014 at 11:38 am

Agreed on the Brussels sprouts. Don’t even lie and tell me they are good roasted. They are most definitely not.

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Annie September 15, 2014 at 10:56 am

This sounds terrific! I have the last of the summer sweet corn in my fridge and it would be a fitting way to send it off for the year. No snow yet, no snow, no snow…ahhhh!

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:20 pm

Annie,

I wondered about you guys when I heard that SD had gotten snow. It’s just way too early!

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Sherri September 15, 2014 at 11:09 am

You had me at green beans…. I eat them raw on my “jag” eating binges. Making this for sure.

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Barbara September 15, 2014 at 12:48 pm

That’s one fine salad! Love the crispness of it along with the raspberry vinaigrette. (What I buy for my daily salad, not that brand though.)
I don’t do much jag eating anymore, but I’ve sure had my share. When I had knee surgery in May, I had someone come stay with me for a couple days. I made my Ghivetch in advance (so she wouldn’t have to cook) and along with some crusty bread, we had it for dinner the first night, then she ate it three times a day for the rest of her visit….and took the recipe home with her. Too funny.

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 1:21 pm

Barbara.

I’m off to Google Ghivetch! You have me intrigued!

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Virginia September 17, 2014 at 6:32 am

I also had to go and google Ghivetch!! :)

Now, of course, I have to try to make Ghivetch.

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Rudri Bhatt Patel @ Being Rudri September 15, 2014 at 1:46 pm

This salad looks delicious. “Jag eater” is an unfamiliar term for me, but I do know what you mean about having the same food over and over again. When I am trying to eat healthier I definitely gravitate toward the same food. Sometimes too many choices are too overwhelming.

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Dana Talusani September 15, 2014 at 3:13 pm

Oh, Rudri!

Your comment reminded me; every winter I invariably go on a red lentil dal jag for at least a few weeks. Ultimate comfort food for me!

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Foodiewife September 15, 2014 at 5:41 pm

Okay, I could eat this for seconds and thirds. Jag eating, eh? Never heard of it. Now that I think of it, I have a crazy addiction to Mexican refried beans, rice and tortillas. I guess that makes me a jag eater. I just don’t get sick of it, and it must be that Mexican DNA that is buried underneath my mom’s German genes. The salad is a much healthier choice, though. I think I can pull this one off, because we Californian’s are hot and dry. Damn drought.

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Lisa @ The Meaning of Me September 15, 2014 at 8:34 pm

I love when I come here and find a recipe that calls for things I already have and hadn’t yet figure out how to use – this will be what I do with the feta that needs to be eaten before it eats us and the sweet corn from the CSA. Yay.

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Jen September 16, 2014 at 8:41 am

I remember the first time you ever mentioned being a jag eater because it was when I realized I wasn’t a total weirdo in the eating habits department. Maybe just a partial weirdo. I remember a Kraft Mac&cheese jag in high school that just wouldn’t quit. My poor husband may never recover from the sandwich jag (focaccia, tomato, avocado, cheese, spinach and light mayo, gently toasted) I went through when we lived in Iowa

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Dana Talusani September 17, 2014 at 7:17 am

Jen.

That sandwich definitely sounds “jag-worthy.”

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Dawn in MI September 17, 2014 at 3:43 am

Printed this. I might just have enough time to get it made once before the frost arrives.

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elizabeth September 18, 2014 at 8:38 am

I hear you on eating jags–this summer has been all about the tomato for me, and despite having it as many ways as possible (especially in August when heirlooms were on sale all month) and gorging on tomato bread this past week in Barcelona, I’m still not sick of them.

Alas, I wish I liked sweet corn in any form off the cob (yeah, I don’t understand it either) or green beans at all, because this looks so lovely and fresh and light.

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Alison September 19, 2014 at 4:14 am

I can truly do with a big pot of this right now.

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Tiffany September 26, 2014 at 2:21 pm

Oh holy man this sounds amazing!

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