Recipe: Confetti Corn Salad

Cover of New School Cuisine Cookbook New School Cuisine: Nutritious and Seasonal Recipes for School Cooks by School Cooks

New School Cuisine is the first of its kind—a cookbook for school cooks, by school cooks. Developed by Vermont school nutrition professionals with support from the New England Culinary Institute, this cookbook includes 78 kid-tested and approved recipes that meet the new USDA dietary guidelines and feature local, seasonal foods.

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Posted on August 4, 2023

Two people, smiling, serve themselves a meal from a buffet line. Meals are central to the Northeast Farm to School Institute. Thank you to Chef Jim McCarthy and the team at The Mill Market for making healthy, delicious food to energize the teams. Photo by Andy Duback.

 

“Can I get that recipe?”

It’s a question we love to hear, and it was asked over and over again at the 13th annual Northeast Farm to School Institute kickoff. Over 100 educators, school food professionals, school administrators, community partners, and food systems specialists spent three days on our working farm campus, dreaming up how their school community could better support students in understanding where their food comes from.

Meals highlighting nutritious, locally grown foods were central to this experience. The menu featured recipes from New School Cuisine — our cookbook created by school nutrition professionals for school nutrition professionals — and incorporated seasonal vegetables from our Market Garden and other nearby farmers and producers.

“The cookbook is a resource that every team leaves with and can begin using back in their schools immediately,” shares Jen Cirillo, Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools Director of Professional Learning. “We do a lot of big picture thinking and long-term planning during these three days, but being able to offer recipes and activities that teams can use right away to get their communities back home excited about farm to school is just as important.”

Celebrate your local food system with this recipe from New School Cuisine. It’s easily adaptable to feature what is coming out of your home garden and looking especially delicious at the farmers’ market.

Are you a school nutrition professional looking for a scaled up version of the recipe? Download the original recipe and download the full cookbook for free.

 

Confetti Corn Salad

Yield: about 6 cups

Ingredients

  • 2 bell peppers
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1  medium carrot
  • ¼ C cider vinegar 
  • 2 ½ Tbsp olive oil 
  • 1 ½ Tbsp brown sugar
  • ½ tsp dried oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • ½  tsp freshly grated orange zest
  • 1lb fresh or frozen (thawed) corn kernels

Method

  1. Stem, core, and seed peppers. Cut into ¼-inch dice.
  2. Trim celery and cut into ¼-inch dice.
  3. Trim and peel carrots. Cut into ¼-inch dice.
  4. Whisk vinegar, oil, sugar, water, oregano, salt, and orange zest in a bowl until combined.
  5. Mix peppers, celery, carrots, and corn in a large bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss to coat. Let stand for 15 minutes to one hour before serving to allow flavors to combine.
     

People sit a a picnic table with plates full of food. The Leland & Gray Union Middle & High School team enjoys a meal together on the Coach Barn Lawn. Photo by Andy Duback.

 

The menu featured recipes from New School Cuisine — our cookbook created by school nutrition professionals for school nutrition professionals. Photo by Sarah Webb.