Name: Crunchy Heartland Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 18 min
Cuisine: Plant Based
Ingredients: 16 ounces frozen corn kernels, defrosted; 12 ounces frozen shelled edamame, defrosted; 1/2 cup toasted and salted sunflower seeds; 2 tablespoons vegetable (soybean) oil; 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (can be gluten free); 2 green onions, sliced diagonally; 2 (2-3 ounce) packages oriental style ramen noodle soup mix (can be gluten free); 1/2 cup feta cheese, optional (can be vegan)

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Crunchy Heartland Salad with corn and edamame began as a family trek to Lake of the Ozarks!

This is a picture of the updated version of the Crunchy Heartland Salad with plant based and gluten free ingredients.

This version of the Crunchy Heartland Salad with corn and edamame (soybeans), is updated so you can choose to make it gluten free and plant based if you like. It’s still the best of the Midwest!

A trip through the Heartland

A while back our family was able to get away for a few days to Lake of the Ozark, Missouri. Lake of the Ozark is about 7 ½ hours southwest of Chicago (unless you take a detour to the Kosher Krispy Kreme donut store in St. Louis…the extra hour detour is definitely worth it!).

This is a view of the lake when visiting Lake of the Ozarks.

Lake of the Ozarks is so beautiful. Worth the drive through the corn and soybean fields!

The drive is through the heartland of the US, miles and miles of Midwest farmland. Corn growing on the right, soybeans growing on the left. Soybeans on the right, corn on the left. Corn on the right and left…you get the idea.

Corn on the left…

Soybeans on the right…

Soybeans on the left!

Corn on the right!

The Midwest is one of the primary suppliers of corn and soy worldwide, and driving through Illinois and Missouri you can see why. We also spotted some sunflower fields which were a sunny burst of color amidst the blanket of green.

There’s a salad in here!

Additionally, we saw a lot of livestock – cows, horses, and goats, grazing happily in the summer sun, and made sure to shout “COW!” every time we saw one (yes, we did shout “HORSE” and “GOAT” too).

COW!

With so much time in the car, and nothing but miles and miles of corn and soybeans as far as the eye could see, it shouldn’t be shocking that my husband and I started to talk about possible recipes that would incorporate all the crops that are harvested in the Midwest. The recipe would include corn, and soybeans (a.k.a. in fancier circles as edamame) of course, but could also include some of the other crops we saw like sunflowers.

We figured that some sort of salad could incorporate all of those healthy ingredients, in a colorful and delicious way – and so Crunchy Hearland Salad with corn and edamame (soybeans) was born. You can even top the recipe with some tangy feta cheese, made from either cow or goat milk (COW!). If you’re on a dairy-free diet you can use plant based (Midwest!) feta instead.

About the salad recipe

This recipe is super simple to make. You just go to the nearest corn, soybean and sunflower farm, pick what you need for the recipe, mix with the other ingredients and serve to your friends and family.

Ok, so it’s even easier than that, with frozen corn and edamame, vegetable oil (which is really soybean oil), scallions that I grow in the backyard (or that you can buy at the store), toasted sunflower seeds, a little vinegar, and ramen noodle soup mix all tossed together in a bowl. It’s incredibly crunchy and yummy.

A picture of midwest dairy cows. This is where dairy feta would come from.

So that’s where dairy feta comes from…COW! Or…potatoes if you’re eating Plant Based Feta! Yes…the car was moving!

Now if I only had a good recipe using Krispy Kreme donuts…I guess I’ll just have to sample them all to come up with a good one! Sigh…

Oh that Crunchy Heartland Salad with corn and edamame…here’s the recipe!