Corn Avocado Arugula Salad

Our corn, avocado and arugula salad uses the best seasonal ingredients to create a fresh, delicious salad with an herbaceous basil dressing that will be a crowd-pleaser at any summer party and an easy, healthy side dish for a busy weeknight.

Jump to:

• 🥗 Why We Love This Recipe
• 🌽 Ingredients
• 📋 Ingredient Notes
• 🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
• 💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
• 🍽 Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

🥗 Why We Love This Recipe

• Summer in a bowl: This salad uses one of our favorite quintessential summer veggies: corn. Paired with avocados and arugula, you'll know it's summer when you dig in!
• Super green: It's hard not to feel healthy after eating a salad packed with arugula, avocado, corn and an herby basil parsley vinaigrette. The freshness of this salad provides a great counterpoint to the richness of summer BBQ fare.
• Best way to use basil: If you're anything like us, chances are you have a ton of basil just sitting in the fridge that you plucked for your garden or bought at the store. A basil vinaigrette is a great way to use up basil that may otherwise go wasted.
• Perfectly balanced: this corn avocado arugula salad is not your average, boring salad. It has a little bit of everything - sweetness from corn, creamy avocado, peppery arugula, briny artichokes, salty olives and refreshing herbs. Every bite is bursting with flavor!

🌽 Ingredients

Here are the key ingredients you'll need to make this corn avocado arugula salad:

📋 Ingredient Notes

• Arugula: You can use full size or baby arugula. We often use baby arugula, which is milder than its fully-grown parent and is typically easier to find in grocery stores. This salad would also be great with another leafy green, like baby kale, spinach or mixed salad greens.
• Artichokes: We used marinated artichokes from a jar in this recipe, which should be available in the canned food section of your grocery store. The oil-based marinade adds extra flavor to the salad, but you can also use water-packed artichokes if that's what you have on hand.
• Olives: We used and recommend Castelvetrano olives for this salad. They're firm, green, and fruity and provide a much milder flavor than most other olives. It's always easiest to purchase pre-pitted olives to shorten prep time. Mezzetta and other brands should be available at your grocery store.

🔪 Step-by-step Instructions

Prep: In a large pot, bring water to a boil and add 4 ears of corn. Check for doneness after 5 minutes.

You can also grill the corn if preferred. Our favorite way to do this is to husk the corn, wrap each cob in a damp paper towel, and then wrap them again with aluminum foil, and then grill for about 15 minutes, turning the cobs over halfway.

(1) Grab a blender or food processor. Combine all vinaigrette ingredients (½ cup + 2 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoon lemon juice, 4 tablespoon fresh parsley, 4 tablespoon fresh basil, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon agave) and pulse until combined.

(2) Add arugula to a large bowl and toss with about half of the vinaigrette.

(3) Using a sharp knife, cut the corn off of your boiled or grilled cobs and add to the arugula along with 1 cup quartered marinated artichokes, ½ cup halved castelvetrano olives, and 2 diced avocados.

(4) Add remaining vinaigrette and toss well to combine.

(5) Serve topped with shaved vegan or regular parmesan.

💭 Expert Tips and FAQs

• Fresh herbs: Be sure to use fresh basil and parsley in this recipe. To better incorporate the fresh herb flavor, we blend the dressing in a blender or food processor. If you don't have a blender, you can also chop the herbs very finely and whisk together the dressing instead.
• Try grilling the corn: Grilling adds extra flavor, and in our opinion, is easier and more fun than boiling! Plus, this corn avocado arugula salad is great paired with grilled proteins (like this tofu) for a full meal, so it's not much extra work.
• Not a fan of olives? Feel free to leave them out or sub with more artichokes.
• Add texture: finish off this salad with a handful of toasted pine nuts or another nut/seed of choice.
• Serve with a protein: make this corn avocado arugula salad into a full meal by topping with a protein of choice. It's also great with some white beans or chickpeas added in!
• Storage: if possible, store the vinaigrette separately from the salad ingredients to prevent sogginess. The salad will store for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

🍽 Related Recipes

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