Succotash is normally a savoury dish; a delicious sautéed combo of corn, sweet peppers and lima beans. It’s a perfect summer side dish. But we recently added a few ingredients to make it a stunning main course – peaches and haloumi.
Succotash (from Narragansett sohquttahhash, “broken corn kernels”) is a food dish consisting primarily of sweet corn with lima beans or other shell beans. Other ingredients may be added including tomatoes and green or sweet red peppers. – Wikipedia
Haloumi is that incredible cheese that you can fry! It browns up fast in a frying pan or on the grill and if you’ve already got a frying pan going for the succotash then you’ve got a quick one dish meal that cleans up easy. All you need are a few peaches, since you’ll be cooking them you can even use slightly underripe ones here as they sweeten up greatly when cooked.
Sautée some diced onion or shallot with corn (you can use frozen any other time of year, but right now you’ll obviously want to use the fresh local corn that’s available now – just slice it from the cob and add to the pan) and some diced red bell pepper. Slice peaches away from the pit and chop roughly, toss in the pan along with some frozen lima beans and the rest of the ingredients and allow to heat through.
Season well and add in whatever fresh fine herbs you have available – thyme, chives, basil or oregano work well here – and scoop out onto plates. The best thing about this dish, besides how delicious and pretty it is, is that it can be served room temperature. Portion it out onto plates, wipe out the frying pan with a paper towel, add a bit of oil and return to the heat. Slice your haloumi, one slice per person, around 1/2 inch thick and add to hot pan. Fry until nicely browned on both sides then slide off to top each portion of peach succotash.
The absolute piece de resistance is to finish the plate with some more fresh herbs and a quick squeeze of lemon before you serve it up. Sweet peaches and corn accented with crunchy pepper, salty hot cheese and a tangy zip from the lemon – it’s a fantastic dish and once you taste it you’ll be making on the regular for the rest of corn and peach season. Enjoy!