Creamy Crouton Summer Salad is your new best friend for summer. Such a delicious salad. I drool just thinking about it. To try another delicious salad and family favorite, click on this Classic Broccoli Salad Recipe.
A few years ago I was at a friend’s house, and she seemed to effortlessly throw together one of the most delicious salads I had ever had.
She had roasted some small pieces of artisan bread (which she had drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper) to turn them into croutons and sliced up three ears of sweet corn she had leftover from dinner the night before.
She rounded it out with a cucumber she had cut into 1/2 inch pieces and a handful or two of halved grape tomatoes. Once everything was in the bowl, she tossed it with homemade (by homemade I mean mixed up from a packet) Ranch Dressing and added a little more fresh ground black pepper. DELICIOUS!!!!
Serve this Salad with…
- Famous Sanpete County Barbecue Turkey and Chicken
- Sloppy Joes
- Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs
- Slow Cooker Fall Off the Bone Ribs
- Pulled Pork with Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce
- Easy Oven Baked Parmesan Porkchops
I have craved that salad for three years and finally decided to do something about it a couple of weeks ago. She had used a special roasted garlic salt to season her homemade croutons, and I think that’s the reason I had waited so long to make it. I was so afraid it wouldn’t turn out right if I didn’t have that exact salt.
The salt was awesome, but you can get the same effect by rubbing a sliced clove of garlic on the slices of artisan bread before you cut them into small pieces. You can also use garlic-infused olive oil, or you can even just shake a little regular garlic salt on instead of regular salt.
HOW TO MAKE CREAMY CROUTON SUMMER SALAD
- Prepare the Ranch Dressing according to the instructions on the packet. Place in the fridge until you’re ready to mix it into the salad.
- Right before serving, add the croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet corn together in a large bowl.
- Start drizzling the Ranch Dressing over the salad and tossing the salad as you go (about 3/4 – 1 1/4 cup of dressing). Make sure to add enough Ranch Dressing that each piece of the salad is generously coated.
- Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
When I made it a few weeks ago, I didn’t have access to fresh corn, but I had all the other ingredients. So help me! I was going for it. I decided to try roasting some frozen corn to see if it could work. It worked pretty well. Sweet corn right off the cob is still better, but it was a great replacement in a pinch.
The great thing about this salad is you can make as much or as little as you want. Just add pretty much equal parts of all the veggies and as many croutons as you like. Then all you have to do is add Ranch Dressing until everything is coated. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!
The only really sad thing about this salad, as I’m sure you can imagine, is that it doesn’t keep. The croutons get super soggy if you try to keep leftovers, but having leftovers shouldn’t prove to be a problem. If it looks like it is even a possibility, call me and I’ll be right over to eat that last bit for ya! …cause I’m nice like that. 🙂
Tips for making Creamy Crouton Summer Salad
- To make homemade croutons, start by cutting artisan bread into 1-inch pieces. Toss them in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Next, roast the bread between 375-400 degrees in the oven until the edges are crunchy.
- Instead of making homemade croutons, use your favorite store-bought croutons. I like the garlic or cheese flavor.
- For the corn, I boil the fresh ears of corn, and then cut the corn off the ear. In a pinch, you can roast frozen corn and get a similar flavor. Just remember to toss it in olive oil and salt and pepper it before roasting.
- I STRONGLY suggest not using a bottle of store-brand Ranch Dressing in this recipe. Make a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing Mix or use a homemade recipe if you have one. It makes a big difference.
More Delicious Summer Salads
- 3-4 cups of croutons
- 2 cups cucumber, cut into ½-inch bite-size pieces
- 2 cups of grape tomatoes, halved
- 3-4 ears of cooked sweet corn, cooled and cut off the cob
- 1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing Mix, prepared according to packet instructions
- Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
- Prepare the Ranch Dressing according to the instructions on the packet. Place in the fridge until you're ready to mix it into the salad.
- Right before serving, add the croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet corn together in a large bowl.
- Start drizzling the Ranch Dressing over the salad and tossing the salad as you go (about ¾ - 1¼ cup of dressing). Make sure to add enough Ranch Dressing that each piece of the salad is generously coated.
- Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
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