Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

This Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad is loaded with grilled corn and tossed with a tangy lime dressing. Bring it to a summer BBQ and watch it disappear!

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So, what happens when you cross the goodness of traditional Mexican Street Corn with pasta?! You get this irresistible pasta salad that will be the hit of your next summer party! Every time I make it, it pretty much disappears!

The inspiration for this recipe came from one of my friends, who brought Mexican Street corn to an afternoon gathering. It was so good that everyone was asking for more, and while I love the traditional version it can be a bit challenging to make for a crowd. So I did some testing and came up with the idea to turn it into a salad, making it the perfect party or picnic side dish!

On the day I did my first test of this salad one of my friends tried a bit of the dressing before I put it on the salad and she told me she could drink the dressing!  Well, maybe not such a good idea, but it really is amazing!!  

Contents:

• Ingredient Notes
• Additional notes from the kitchen
• Making Street Corn pasta salad
• What's the Best Way to Grill Corn?
• Recommended Tools
• How to serve Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
• Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

Ingredient Notes

• Corn: In the summer I try to get fresh corn from the local farmer's market or a farm stand whenever possible as it's just a little fresher and sweeter than you can get in your local grocery store.
• Cotija cheese: This is the traditional cheese for Elote. It's salty and crumbles easily making it work well in a pasta salad. You'll find it in most major grocery stores. If necessary you can substitute Queso Fresco.
• Dry pasta: I use Celentani for this recipe, which gives you that nice corkscrew shape that holds the dressing well. It's also known as Cavatappi.
• Bell peppers: I generally use a combination of red and yellow or orange peppers. Green peppers work as well, though I would not recommend using only green pepper due to it's sharper taste.
• Vegan mayo: The recipe calls for a plain, vegan mayo for the dressing. If you don't regularly use vegan mayo and don't want to buy it just for the recipe, you can substitute regular mayo. If you want to give your salad a little extra kick you could use a Siracha-flavored mayo

Additional notes from the kitchen

• Make sure you salt your pasta water. I generally start by adding about a teaspoon of salt. Let the water come to a boil and then taste it (be careful not to burn your tongue!) It should taste salty.
• Cook the pasta to just al dente so you don't end up with a soggy pasta salad. Depending on where you live (altitude impacts pasta cooking time) this will likely be about a minute less than the lowest suggested cooking time on the package directions.
• I have a couple of friends who are vegan so have a few go-to dishes like this pasta salad that are either naturally vegan or can easily be made vegan. Leaving the cheese off of this one gives you a vegan version.

Making Street Corn pasta salad

Like most pasta salads, this one is pretty easy and only requires a few simple steps.

Step 1 | Grill the corn: Start with this step and you can prep everything else while the bread is cooking and cooling. We all know fresh grilled sweet corn is pretty hard to beat when it comes to summer veggies!

Step 2 | Cook the pasta: Once you get the corn on the grill heat the pasta water and get the pasta cooking. The corn and the pasta will both be done around the same time so you can let both cool while you finish prepping.

Step 3 | Make the dressing: Up next, you make the irresistible spicy lime dressing that is out-of-this-world delicious! Add the dressing ingredients to a small bowl or mason jar and mix to combine.

Step 4 | Strip the corn: Once the corn is cool enough to handle, strip the kernels from the cobs. You'll want to either use a corn peeler (see recommended tools section) or a sharp knife.

Step 5 | Assemble the salad: Add the pasta to a very large mixing bowl. Add the corn, veggies and cheese. To finish it off you'll add that delicious dressing. This is really the ultimate summer salad.  It took me a while to get it on the blog, partly because every time I make it, it seems to disappear before I can photograph it!!

How to serve Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad

This salad is a great dish to bring to a potluck or backyard party. And it also makes a nice light vegetarian lunch or dinner all on its own.

Or if you want to create your own small group gathering featuring this pasta salad, I'd add on:

• Healthy Cowboy Caviar or Melon, Proscuitto and Mozzarella Skewers
• Southwestern Turkey Burger Sliders
• No-Churn Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Include a couple of bottles of Pinot Gris and you'll have the perfect summer evening.

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This recipe post was originally published in August 2017 and updated in June 2024 with some new information. No changes have been made to the original recipe.