corn

Vegan Mexican Street Corn Salad (Elote Salad, Esquites)

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I love vegan elote. Vegan Mexican Street Corn is a favorite side dish of mine but since nobody near us makes a vegan version, it is something we had to start making at home once we were no longer vegetarian.

Making your own elote is pretty easy! You just need to grill or roast the corn, brush it with some vegan crema, sprinkle it with some seasoning and vegan cheese, and give it a squeeze of lime. Most elote has a chili powder seasoning mixture on it, but since my family doesn’t like spicy, we used smoked paprika instead.

Recently I was thinking about how to make vegan elote a little easier to serve. For say a party or even for my kids who waste so much corn when attempting to eat it off the cob. So I thought why not just turn the elote into a salad. I would just grill the corn, cut it off the cob, mix all the yummy goodness together in a bowl and be done with it. And that is what I did.

This is not a new thing, its just the first time I thought to do it then learned when you make it like this. It’s called esquites!

Not rocket science, not recreating the wheel here, just making something we already make pretty often a little easier to serve to kids or at a get together or pot luck.

You can grill or roast your corn in the oven, which ever you prefer. We use vegan sour cream or plain yogurt to replace the creama, mixed with vegan mayo and sprinkle vegan parm on our corn, and it is DELICIOUS!!

If corn is in season, this the BEST summer side dish! Trust me, even if you have never had elote (Mexican street corn) you need to try it. It is just about one of the best things! Period!!

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INGREDIENTS:

  • 8 ears of corn, shucked and cleaned

  • Juice from 1-2 limes, depending on taste and size of limes

  • 1/4 cup vegan mayo

  • 2 tablespoons vegan sour cream or plain vegan yogurt

  • 1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese, store bought or homemade

  • 1/2-1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

  • 1/4-1/2 cup copped cilantro

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INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Shuck and clean the corn.

  2. Grilling: If you want to grill the corn, just heat up your grill, give the corn a little spray of cooking oil and grill until the corn starts to get some good color on it, around 10 minutes, turning a few times durning grilling. Remove from the grill and let it cool.

  3. Oven roasting: heat oven to 400 degrees. Place corn on a baking sheet. Place on top oven rack and let it bake, turning it a few times while baking unit it gets nice color on it. It should only need 10-15 minutes in the oven. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

  4. CAREFULLY cut the cooled corn off of the cob. I like to place the cob in a shallow bowl or pie plate and cut the corn off the cob with a sharp knife in a downward motion, allowing the bowl to catch the corn kernels.

  5. Mix the corn and remaining ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and serve at room temperature or cold. Store any leftovers in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

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Easy Summer Corn Salad

I have so many memories as a kids sitting around with family shucking corn. My grandparents lived on a farm and grew a lot of their food. Every summer we would have to shuck the corn so my grandmother could freeze it for later. As kids we  hated thi…

I have so many memories as a kids sitting around with family shucking corn. My grandparents lived on a farm and grew a lot of their food. Every summer we would have to shuck the corn so my grandmother could freeze it for later. As kids we hated this job. As an adult, I am so thankful for the memories that come back to mind every time I shuck corn. Yes, you could use frozen corn in a bag to make this, but I promise it won’t be as good. Grilling the corn makes it so much more flavorful, that I would not even consider making this salad any other way! This salad is easy, affordable, light, and delicious. Its the perfect summer BBQ side, or even a quick weeknight dinner with a side of Alabama White Sauce Tofu Skewers, or a vegan burger or carrot dog. I will say that now that I am a grown up, I do try and make my kids shuck the corn. It’s still not my favorite task but, one that is worth it for the past memories and hopefully future memories for my kids.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 6-8 ears of corn

  • 1 red bell pepper

  • 1/2 red onion

  • 2 green onions

  • handful of cilantro

  • 2 limes

  • salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Shuck and clean the corn. To grill the corn, spray each ear with a little oil and put directly on a hot grill. Allow the corn to grill for 5 minutes or so before turning. Grill another 5 minutes on the other side. You just want the corn to get some nice grill marks and color to it.

  2. If you do not have a grill you can place the corn on a cookie sheet and spray with some oil. Place the cookie sheet in the oven on broil. Keep a close eye on the corn. It should start to get some color to it pretty quickly. Carefully turn the corn once or twice with some tongs before removing from the oven.

  3. Allow the corn to cool before carefully cutting it off the cob with a sharp knife. I like to prop the corn cob up in a shallow bowl to cut it. The bowl catches the corn kernels with less mess, and helps to stabilize as you cut down the cob.

  4. Finley dice the onions and peppers. Chop the cilantro.

  5. Mix the corn and other veggies together and squeeze the juice from the 2 limes over the top. Salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

  6. Serve room temperer or chilled.

If you like this recipe, try these:

Vegan Street Corn

Southern Dill Potato Salad

Easy Vegan Macaroni Salad

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Vegan Mexican Street Corn (Elote)

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What is your favorite recipe to make in the summer when fresh sweet corn is in season?

Mine is Elotes, or Vegan Mexican Street corn.

I love sweet summer corn and when it is in season I will try and use it as often as I can. I am always game for an easy corn salad, or a summer grit bowl with tempeh and fresh corn, but Mexican street corn will always be my favorite way to use up in season corn.

We have used vegan mayo and plain vegan yogurt to turn this popular street food into a vegan summer time staple. You could also use vegan sour cream if you can not find plain yogurt. Either should work just fine! And don’t forget to make or buy some vegan parmesan cheese. We normally make our own but these days most grocery stores sell a vegan version in the refrigerated cheese section.

You likely have most of the spices in your pantry, just grab a lime and fresh cilantro and you will be good to go! Well and maybe a margarita, or maybe thats just me.

So fire up the grill and start shucken, because I promise you are gonna want to make this recipe all summer long!


INGREDIENTS:

  • 4-6 ears of corn

  • 1/4 cup vegan mayo

  • 1/4 cup vegan plain yogurt

  • 1 lime

  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

  • 1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese

  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1 teaspoon salt


COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Shuck and clean each ear of corn, then prepare them for the grill by spraying each one with a little olive oil and squeezing juice from half the lime over the tops.

  2. Heat your grill and add corn, grilling for 10 - 15 minutes, turning a few times to get all side grilled, just be careful not to let them burn.

  3. In a bowl mix mayo, yogurt, and juice from other half of the lime, garlic, salt, and 1 teaspoon paprika.

  4. Once corn is off the grill, brush each ear with your mayo mix, saving some of the mix for drizzling over your corn.

  5. Mix parmesan and cilantro on a plate and roll each ear of corn in the mixture.

  6. Lay corn out on a serving dish and drizzle with remaining mayo, and sprinkle with the remaining paprika.