Traditional Elote- or Mexican street corn- gets a makeover in this super summer salad full of grill-roasted, slightly charred sweet corn, with a creamy Mexican inspired dressing of mayonnaise, ground chipotles, lime juice, and cilantro. Serve with grilled fish, chicken, pork or beef and you'll be the most popular summer cook in your neighborhood!
Ingredients
6to 8 ears grilled sweet corncooled to a comfortable temperature *See Notes
1/4of a sweet onionpeeled and finely diced
1/4of a sweet red bell pepperoptional: can omit or replace with a seeded hot pepper, seeded and finely diced
1/2cupcrumbled Cotija or feta cheeseor freshly grated parmesan
1/2teaspoonto 1 tablespoon ground chipotle pepper or chili powderto taste. *See Notes
1/2teaspoonground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Stand a cooled, grilled corn cob on a cutting board, flat end down. Holding the cob steady with your hand, use a sharp knife to cut the kernels away from the cob. Once you've cut away all of the kernels, use the dull, back side of the knife to scrape out any remaining juices or pulp from the corn cob. Discard the cobs.
Stir together the corn, pulp, onion, pepper, cheese, mayonnaise, cilantro (or parsley), lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon of the ground chipotle or chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper until everythig is evenly distributed. Taste and adjust with more ground chipotle or chili powder, and salt or pepper until it tastes just right. You can serve immediately or refrigerate for an hour to let the flavours meld. This is best eaten the day it is made, but will hold up reasonably for leftovers the next day.
Notes
While nothing beats freshly grilled corn for this salad, it can certainly be made -and deliciously- with leftover grilled corn. I often grill more corn than we can eat just so I can make salad or salsa from it the next day.The 1 tablespoon measurement of ground chipotle powder or chili powder is the most traditional amount of heat added to Elote. We prefer it like this, but I understand that not everyone likes the same amount of spice my family does. Start on the low end and adjust up as you prefer!
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.