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Our Street Corn Pasta Salad combines grilled corn kernels, pasta, and vegetables in a creamy and zesty dressing.
Delicious Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
This fantastic Street Corn Pasta Salad is so good, it’s sure to become the star at all of your summer dinner parties and cookouts.
The flavors are inspired by Mexican Street Corn – grilled corn on the cob that’s slathered with a garlic-infused crema, then sprinkled with crumbled Cotija cheese, fresh cilantro, and freshly squeezed lime juice.
We followed the same basic flavor profile in this salad – cutting the grilled corn kernels off the cob, adding cooked pasta, and making a dressing out of similar street corn topping ingredients. The flavors are tangy, sweet, and salty and go so well with each other!
Mexican Street Corn is also known as elote which means corn cob in Spanish.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Crema is a creamy Mexican condiment with a slightly tangy and slightly salty flavor. It’s often confused with sour cream – but crema has a more complex flavor. You can find crema at some well-stocked or specialty grocery stores, but we find it easier to make our own following this recipe. Just note that you should make this crema a day in advance as it needs to sit overnight at room temperature to thicken.
- For some additional protein and flavor, we sometimes add canned black beans to this salad as well.
- While we used farfalle or bow tie pasta, any bite-size pasta shape will work well for this salad.
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Street Corn Pasta Salad
Our Street Corn Pasta Salad combines grilled corn kernels, pasta, and vegetables in a creamy and zesty dressing.
Ingredients
8 ounces dry pasta (we used bow tie/farfalle)
6 ears of corn, husked
1/2 cup vegetable oil for grilling
Topping
1 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup crema
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon garlic, minced fine
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
To Assemble The Salad
4 ounces Cotija cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 cup red onion, sliced thin
1 cup grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Ideas for Garnish
Lime wedges
Additional cilantro
Additional Cotija cheese
Additional crema
Instructions
- Make the crema the day prior or at least four hours before preparing the recipe.
- Cook the pasta per box directions in salted water. Drain and cool under cold water and drain again.
- Husk the corn and lay them out in a sheet tray and brush with the oil. Before grilling, prepare the other ingredients.
- Mix all the Topping ingredients in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, add all the salad assembly ingredients listed.
- Heat your grill to high, roll the corn around in the oil one last time and place them on the grill. Keep charring and turning until all the corn is charred, about 15 minutes.
- Once charred, place back in the sheet tray and immediately cover with the topping, letting it melt into the corn. Cool to room temperature.
- Once cool, use a sharp knife to cut away the kernels and add to the large salad bowl with the salad ingredients you put in the bowl from earlier. Any topping that is still in the pan should also be scraped into the salad bowl.
- Add the cooked pasta and toss.
- Serve in bowls with any of the garnish options listed above. (We found that lime wedges squeezed over the top of the salad really woke the flavors up.)
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make this Street Corn Pasta Salad ahead of time? Yes. You can do a lot of the prep a day ahead of serving: grilling the corn, cooking the pasta, chopping the vegetables. Additionally – see Cooking Tips & Tricks above – the crema needs overnight to thicken before mixing it into the salad, so plan accordingly. We also think this salad tastes better after it has sat in the refrigerator for a while – this gives the flavors time to meld.
- How do I store leftovers? Store covered and refrigerated for up to three days.
- Can I make this salad with canned or frozen corn? Technically, yes. But we think this salad is best if you’ve been able to grill and caramelize the corn on the cob. You won’t get quite the same charred flavor if you swap in canned or frozen corn.
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