Tomato, Corn, and Cheese Salad

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Gather all the ingredients. Use fleshy, deeply colored tomatoes — ideally fresh, in-season ones. When choosing tomatoes, I go by smell: it should be bright and truly tomatoey. Any cheese will do — all kinds of hard and semi-hard cheeses work, and so does blue cheese. My corn is canned, but you can also use boiled corn, just cut from the cob.

2. Step 2:

   

   Wash the tomatoes well — a vegetable brush and produce wash are best for this. Then dry them, remove the stems, and cut them up. I cut mine into thin wedges, but the way you slice them doesn't affect the flavor, so cut them however you like.

3. Step 3:

   

   Put the tomatoes in a salad bowl. Drain the liquid from the corn and add it to the tomatoes.

4. Step 4:

   

   Add the minced garlic clove. I pressed mine, but you can grate it on a fine grater or chop it with a knife. If you don't have fresh garlic, you can use garlic powder.

5. Step 5:

   

   Salt the salad. Keep in mind that the cheese can be quite salty too, so don't overdo it. At this point you can also pepper the salad or add ground paprika or any other favorite seasonings.

6. Step 6:

   

   Grate the cheese and add it to the salad. If you're using blue cheese, just break it into pieces. To taste, you can add chopped fresh herbs: dill, parsley, cilantro, and green onion.

7. Step 7:

   

   Dress the salad with sour cream. It should be natural, with no milk-fat substitutes. Use whatever fat content you prefer, from 10 to 30%. Of course, you can swap the sour cream for mayonnaise, but in that case use homemade — store-bought mayonnaise isn't good for you.

8. Step 8:

   

   Serve the salad on its own or as a side for meat, poultry, or fish. Enjoy!