Once I get started on the Cinco de Mayo train, I just can’t stop. I started with some Cheesy Scallion Stuffed Jalapeños the other day, then ended up making a batch of enchiladas and this insanely good (and simple) Warm Corn and Avocado Salad. This salad is the perfect light and fresh side dish for enchiladas, Chipotle Lime Chicken and Rice, Cilantro Lime Chicken, Carnitas, Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers, or even as a topper for tacos. It’s great warm when freshly prepared, but it’s also great cold if you’re making it ahead of time. And the avocado? Don’t worry. The lime juice helps keep it bright and looking fresh!
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Warm Corn and Avocado Salad
Servings 4 (1 cup each)Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 1 lb. frozen corn kernels, thawed ($1.45)
- Salt and Pepper to taste ( $0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cumin ($0.03)
- 1/4 red onion ($0.15)
- 1 avocado ( $0.69)
- 1/4 bunch cilantro ( $0.20)
- 1 lime ( $0.50)
Instructions
- Make sure to let the corn thaw completely. Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is very hot and shimmering, add the thawed corn and sauté until the corn becomes golden brown and blistered. Remove the corn from the skillet and place it in a large bowl, season with a pinch of salt, pepper, and 1/4 tsp cumin. Allow the corn to cool slightly.
- While the corn is cooling, prepare the remaining vegetables. Finely dice the red onion, roughly chop the cilantro, and cube the avocado. Add the onion, cilantro, and avocado to the bowl with the corn. Stir briefly.
- Squeeze the juice from half the lime over the salad, stir, and taste. Adjust the salt and lime juice as needed. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat.
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Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
Start with one pound of frozen corn kernels that are completely thawed. Heat about 2 Tbsp of cooking oil (a high smoke point oil) in a large skillet over medium-high heat. You want the skillet and oil very hot so they slightly char the corn. Once hot, add the corn and sauté until the corn gets some browned and blistered spots. Once it’s got some color, turn the heat off and season with a pinch of salt and pepper, plus 1/4 tsp cumin. Remove the corn from the skillet and place it in a large bowl.
While the corn is cooling, prepare the rest of the salad ingredients. Finely dice about 1/4 of a red onion, roughly chop about 1/4 bunch of cilantro, and cube an avocado. These ingredients don’t really have to be exact. If you don’t like red onion so much, use less. If you like cilantro a lot, use more. You can even add a diced jalapeño if you want your salad to be a lil’ spicy!
Add the onion, avocado, and cilantro to the warm corn. Squeeze the juice from half the lime over top.
Give everything a quick stir, then taste, and adjust the lime and salt if needed.
Serve the Warm Corn and Avocado Salad immediately, or refrigerate it until ready to eat and enjoy it cold.
Makes a great fresh salad on its own, or as a topper for tacos! Oooh baby. #cantgetenough
I usually make this as a side dish with your Easy Fish Tacos, but this is also really good as a lettuce wrap filling with a tbsp of buttermilk ranch dressing drizzled on it. Great recipe, thanks as always!
I just had to leave a comment, this was SO GOOD! It was super easy so I wasn’t expecting much but it blew me out of the water! This is gonna be a regular in my house
WOW!! This is phenomenal! Tasted like I was at a restaurant. We ate it with chips as a side dish for the sweet potato tacos with lime crema (we’re doing week 1 of the vegetarian meal plan). This is an instant favorite!
Amazing! instead of a frying pan, I roasted the corn with paprika and it was delicious. goes perfect with the lime cilantro chicken. Thank you Beth!
I just made this with your enfrioladas. Omg! It was all so delicious! We’re under quarantine so we can’t get to our favorite Mexican restaurant but honestly this meal was every bit as good-if not better!!!
This was so darn good!
I added pinto beans, panela cheese and some home made soy sour cream and used fresh corn and it was hearty, sweet, citrusy and very satisfying. Thanks Beth!
This was excellent, made exactly as per recipe. Delicious using frozen corn, can’t imagine how good this would be with fresh summer corn, wow! Went really well with the oven roasted chicken fajitas, as a side. (Both of these recipes are real keepers.)
Had this with your taco rice and grilled chili lime chicken from The Recipe Critic. Made for an amazing meal!
I had a couple ears of fresh corn and half of an avocado languishing in the fridge from the weekend. (And all the other ingredients as well). So I made half a recipe. It was yummy! I’ve made similar salads, but always served cold. I loved this one warm.
I made this for dinner tonight to go along with the Easy Oven Fajitas (amazing, by the way), and it was really good! My husband doesn’t like raw onion, so I sautéed it with the corn for a few minutes. I used sweet onion instead of red. Next time I’m going to try adding some chopped jalapeño.
Why do you use frozen corn instead of canned in most of your recipes?
It tastes waaaayyy better in my opinion. :) It’s really close to fresh corn in both texture and flavor, whereas canned corn is often waterlogged and the liquid it is canned in often contains extra salt and sugar, which change the flavor.
OMG! I made this and put it in crispy tacos (with the salsa recipe)… Sooooo good!
I doubled the recipe and added tomatoes. I thought it was pretty easy to make and tasty. I’m not sure if it was just the frozen corn I got, but I would have liked my corn kernels to be crispier instead of kind of mushy. Maybe the only way to achieve that is with fresh corn.
Yep, you definitely need fresh corn to get that crispy texture. When vegetables freeze the ice crystals damage the cell walls making them softer once thawed.
we had a ton of fresh corn on the cob, so i made this salad over the weekend. Delish!!!
This was so good! Michigan corn is incredibly fresh and sweet right now–we served it with your quinoa and black bean tacos. Thanks for the recipe, Beth. :)
Made this as a side for our weekly meal prep, and I love it. I substituted green bell pepper for avocado because my husband doesn’t do avocado, but it’s still good.
For the record, if you have leftovers and like salsa con queso, if you use the corn salad as the salsa part of your queso dip, it’s really awesome.
Amazing idea. We’ll have to try this in queso! Thank you for sharing.
Love this! Today we were out of avocados, so subbed in some cotija cheese that was laying around. Yum!
I’m adding black beans and stuffing this into tacos tonight.
Works great with fresh grilled corn-on-the-cob, grilled without the husk, too! I used 4 medium-sized ears on a charcoal grill. Amazing recipe, as usual.
Just finished making this, Wow, Beth! It’s great.Super easy, super flavorful. Serving it with your stuffed jalapeños. Thank you.
Through some freak of all things food, I could not find my cumin. On a whim, I instead added ground coriander and garam masala. A couple of firm shakes of each. Delicious!
Yum! Perfect for the season’s first grill out when corn on the cob isn’t in season yet. We did without onion bc I didn’t have any.
My son is one of those people for whom cilantro tastes like soap. I subbed parsley and doubled the lime juice. Still yummy!
Keep serving it to him–that’s exactly what I experienced the first time I tasted it, but since it was such an important ingredient in so many Asian recipes, I kept using it. It still tastes like soap, but I LOVEit!
I love these easy sides. I like how the avacado adds some calories and good fat. I will try this for sure and eat it cold over a couple of days.
Yum! Thank you. Looking forward to trying this–perhaps as a side to your southwest shredded beef
Delicious recipe I will try this recipe soon :)
I agree! Once I start making Mexican, I make various Mexican dishes for days haha I just love it so much.
If you use frozen roasted corn like Trader Joe’s you don’t even have to dirty a skillet for this
I just saw today that Whole Foods sells frozen roasted corn, too! Great tip!
This was great! I took it to a Cinco de Mayo party and everyone loved it! Super easy to make. I had limited time, so I used a bag of Trader Joe’s roasted corn to speed up the time and it was wonderful!
Oh man, this is so simple and yet it looks SO AMAZING!
I can just imagine how well the creamy avocado pairs with the slightly charred corn… mmmmm..
Thank you!
Those colours together look stunning, this looks like a great little recipe. Thank you for sharing :) Becky at zerosugardiet.com