Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
Love this easy pasta salad recipe!
The first time I ever tried Mexican street corn, it was love at first taste. The combination of sweet grilled corn, tart Mexican crema, crumbly Cotija cheese, and spices got my taste buds so fired up, I immediately whipped up a Mexican Street Corn Dip based on it.
This year, with Cinco de Mayo approaching, I started getting a hankering for Mexican street corn again. But this time, I wanted to do more than just snack on it. This dish is so good, I thought it deserved to be the basis for a whole meal.
So I started thinking about what I could add to the street corn to bulk it up, and it hit me – this needs to become a pasta salad!
After that, the recipe pretty much wrote itself. Cooked pasta, corn kernels, red onion, cilantro, and scallions, with the unique texture of cotija (or, if you can’t get that, queso fresco). A little chopped bacon to give it some extra protein, as well as extra flavor. And a creamy, spicy dressing spiked with lime juice, cumin, smoked paprika, and a touch of Sriracha.
Email Me This Recipe!
Need to save time? Have this article emailed straight to your inbox + sign up for all the latest recipes!
Served well chilled, this makes a delicious, fiesta-flavored summertime dinner to enjoy outdoors on a warm evening. Olé!
Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of Cavatappi or Rotini pasta, cooked according to package
3 cups corn, used fire roasted if you can find it
1/2 small red onion finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
6 green onions chopped
1/2 cup cotija cheese, or queso fresco crumbled
6 strips bacon, chopped
Dressing Ingredients:
1/3 cup full fat regular mayo
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper ground
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon Sriracha or hot sauce
DIRCECTIONS:
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked pasta, corn, onion, cilantro, green onions, cheese and bacon.
- In a separate small mixing bowl combine all dressing ingredients. Mix until well combined.
- Pour dressing over pasta mixture and mix until well combined and evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad
Email this recipe!
Get this recipe emailed straight to your inbox!
Ingredients
- 2 cups cavatappi or rotini pasta
- 3 cups corn
- 1/2 small red onion
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese
- 6 stripes of bacon
Dressing
- 1/3 cup full fat mayo
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/8 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sriracha or hot sauce
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked pasta, corn, onion, cilantro, green onions, cheese and bacon.
- In a separate small mixing bowl combine all dressing ingredients. Mix until well combined.
- Pour dressing over pasta mixture and mix until well combined and evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Make sure to share it with me below!
Would be BETTER with the Nutritional Value listed for those of us who are on special diets !!! Thanks !!
Really great! adapted for what was on hand — in addition to the other dressing ingredients added a bit of jarred mango and lime salsa that we had on hand and lots of tajin and jalapenos. Didn’t have any queso fresco so used some cubed jalapeno jack cheese.
I am confused over the “2 cups pasta”. Does this mean 16 oz. of dry pasta that is then cooked or should I cook pasta and add 2 measuring cups of cooked pasta?
Yes, cook 2 cups of pasta (measured out uncooked)
First, I don’t know what you did to get that much dressing on 2 cups of pasta and why isn’t is more pink?
I made the dressing as directed.
I only made 1 cup of pasta because there’s just 2 of us. Good thing because…I added a can of kidney beans (I meant to add black), some cubed cheddar and grilled chicken to your recipe. Oh, and only 1 can of the fire roasted corn (all I had).
I tossed it and it didn’t look very coated. So, I made another batch of the dressing.
Why? I served it on bed of lettuce to toss or not toss.
It was pretty good. I love the dressing. I added it my book w/ all my favorites.