This Creamy Tex-Mex Corn Salad with Green Chile Dressing is going to be your new favorite corn salad if you’re like me. I am obsessed with green chiles and this recipe uses a can of them in the BEST salad dressing you are ever going to taste. I could eat green chiles by the bowl, so this was a way to get them into my belly along with some healthy vegetables!
Corn Salad with Fresh or Frozen Corn
It’s not table corn season yet here in Edmonton, so I made this using frozen corn- and it was amazing! So don’t scoff at the idea of using frozen corn, just make sure to get your favorite brand and use it. Fresh of course would be the best tasting but we aren’t all so lucky to have a long fresh corn season. The rest of the fresh ingredients ( red pepper, avocado, tomatoes) make up for any lack of fresh corn. The corn I used was flavourful and tender, remember that the corn is frozen at its peak taste, so you’re getting a pretty good product. What about canned corn? You can use it but drain the corn exceptionally well or you will have a watery salad. I would stick with fresh or frozen.
How is Tex-Mex different from Mexican?
This is a really important and interesting point to learn as traditional Mexican food is completely different from the fusion food that Tex-Mex has become. Tex-Mex is partially to blame for what has given Mexican food the (wrong!) appearance of being cheap to make. Plastic cheese, hard taco’s that you buy in the convenience store, that’s all Tex-Mex. There are a few key ingredients that are considered to be key points for how you can tell the difference: beef, yellow cheese (like cheddar), wheat flour, black beans, canned vegetables (especially tomatoes), and cumin.
These are all affiliated with the Texas influence on Mexican cuisine and include dishes such as chili con carne, nachos, hard tacos, and fajitas. You will find an assortment of Mexican and Tex-Mex at almost any local Mexican restaurant once you start learning about it and it’s a very complicated subject that can’t be summed up here on my website. Serious Eats has a great read on it if you’d like to learn more and Wikipedia has an entire page. If you love food this is a fascinating read! I spent way too long reading when I should have been writing this post but I love the cuisines and as a food blogger, it’s my duty to learn.
Karlynn’s Tips & Tricks for Making Great Corn Salad
- Make sure that you drain the tomatoes before you add them to the salad. This is a corn salad with mayo for the dressing so any liquid that you add is going to dilute the dressing. The same goes for the green chiles in the dressing! Drain them well!
- This is better when it’s made a few hours ahead of time, but not overnight. A few hours in the fridge will give the ingredient different flavors time to blend together but not become soggy.
- Add cilantro and lime juice to taste for the dressing. I LOVE cilantro and added more on top of my individual serving when I plated the salad up.
- Add the cumin to taste as well, some people like it a lot, I like just a mild hint of it as I find it overpowering sometimes.
Hope you love it! Let me know in the comments below if you tried it!
Love you more than chocolate,
Karlynn
Creamy Tex-Mex Corn Salad with Green Chile Dressing
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
- 1 red pepper, cleaned and sliced into strips
- 1 cup diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 green onions, chopped, white included
- 1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
Green Chile Dressing
- one 127 millilitre can chopped green chiles, drained
- 3/4 cup mayo
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin ( or to taste)
- 1/4 cup minced cilantro
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt ( to taste)
Instructions
- Place all of the corn salad ingredients into a large bowl.
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Pour over the corn salad. Toss gently to coat the ingredients completely.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-3 hours. Serve cold.
Nutrition
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Kaye says
Can’t wait to try this. I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for some time. Thank you!!!