Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
Amp up the flavor of your next BBQ or Mexican meal with this Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad recipe! It's bursting with all of the delicious flavors of elote, like grilled corn, cilantro and cotija cheese, tossed in a creamy chili lime dressing with macaroni noodles, creating a vibrant pasta salad. It's easy to make in 25 minutes and guaranteed to be a family favorite!
Ingredients
For the salad
- 3 cups corn kernels, canned, frozen, or from 3 ears of corn
- ½ pound uncooked macaroni noodles, approximately 1 ¾ cups dry pasta
- ¼ cup minced red onion
- ½ cup cotija cheese, crumbled (use queso fresco or feta, if you can’t find cotija)
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
For the chili lime dressing
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons lime juice, fresh-squeezed
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional - for spice
Instructions
- You’ll want to start this recipe by cooking the corn. Follow this blog post for how to cook corn on the cob six different ways. For this recipe, I like to grill the corn, out of the husks and directly on the grill grates. If you don’t have a grill available, you can use one of the other methods to cook the corn. Once the corn is cooked, use a sharp knife to remove the kernels from the cob and set them aside.
- If you’re using canned or frozen corn, you’ll want to cook the corn kernels on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (avocado oil, canola oil, or olive oil) to a large cast iron skillet on the stove over high heat. Add the corn kernels and cook for 4-6 minutes, or until the corn becomes slightly charred. Remove from the heat and set the corn aside.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil on the stove. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions.
- Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water to cool down the pasta and stop the cooking process. Transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the cooked corn, minced onion, cotija cheese and cilantro to the bowl with the cooked macaroni noodles.
- In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Optionally add cayenne pepper for heat. Pour the dressing over the salad in the bowl.
- Toss all of the ingredients together.
- Cover and place the salad in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours. This will allow the flavors of the salad to develop.
Notes
- You can grill the corn up to 5 days in advance and store it in the fridge until you're ready to make the salad.
- You can also make the entire salad ahead of time. In fact, the pasta salad gets even better as it sits and soaks in the flavors of the dressing. If you’re making the salad 24 hours in advance, or more, be sure to cover it before placing it in the fridge.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I always recommend eating the salad cold, and storing it in an airtight container to preserve the fresh flavors.
- To make this recipe gluten free, substitute in gluten-free macaroni noodles.
Nutrition Facts
Serving 1cupCalories 301kcal (15%)Carbohydrates 32g (11%)Protein 7g (14%)Fat 17g (26%)Saturated Fat 5g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat 7gMonounsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 23mg (8%)Sodium 627mg (26%)Potassium 201mg (6%)Fiber 2g (8%)Sugar 4g (4%)Vitamin A 403mg (8%)Vitamin C 3mg (4%)Calcium 74mg (7%)Iron 1mg (6%)
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