Corn-Tomato Salad with a Tomato vinaigrette!

Since A's been hounding people like me with desserts like those below, and much to my anguish, most of you seem to have taken to his tactics. So, as a response, I post this incredibly fresh and tasty salad with a vinaigrette I personally love.

Like I said, I was on a no-carb diet for a week. It worked great as a detox diet for me. I really didn't miss carbs as much as I thought I would. I'm consciously trying to reduce my carb intake irrespective of whether A wants to or not. I intend to outlive my husband, yes. Anyway, during that week, I made this salad sans the corn but added avocado instead, and loved it so much that I made it again yesterday. This time, I skipped the avocado and added corn. Considering its Holler's birthday and she seems to be a tomato gal like me, this one goes out to her for the Tomatoey edition of 'No Croutons Required' event. . Here's wishing you a healthy and happy birthday, Holler!

Ingredients:

1 cup corn

1/2 cup red onion, chopped.

1/2 cup cherry/grape tomatoes, cut into halves

1/4 cup baby spinach, chiffonaded

1/8 cup olive oil

3-4 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tsp Chipotle pepper

1 tsp honey

A dash of balsamic vinegar and/or red wine vinegar

1 tsp roasted cumin seeds

Lemon juice

Pepper

Salt to taste

Thaw the corn if frozen and add to the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over it. The lemon juice measurment may be slightly approximate, because I love lemon and add a lot of lemon juice to everything that I eat! Also add salt and pepper.

For the Vinaigrette -

- Chop the sun-dried tomatoes. You could use either the ones packed in oil or the dry ones. If you use the ones packed in oil, you may want to reduce the amount of olive oil used for the dressing.

- Blend the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the chipotle pepper powder, roasted cumin, honey and the vinegar(s) along with olive oil and make sure it is of a pouring consistency. Add lemon juice if required. Again, add salt and pepper as you wish.

If you don't want to buy Chipotle peppers or Ancho chilli peppers which are essentially dry Jalapeno peppers, you may want to look for the readymade powdered ones available in your Farmer's Market or in the Mexican aisle at the supermarket. They lend a beautiful smoky flavour to the vinaigrette.

Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and mix well! Simple, filling and makes you feel like you put in a lot of exotic ingredients ;)

Happy Birthday to you, Holler. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!