This Keto Mexican Street Corn Salad uses a few simple swaps to deliver all the flavors of street corn without the carbs. It’s jam-packed with flavor and goes really well with most Mexican food as well as all the typical cookout fare.
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Mexican street corn is one of my favorite summertime side dishes. I have missed it SO much that I had to come up with a low carb version. The result is seriously delicious!
How do you make a corn dish keto?
The answer may surprise you because it sure did me! The trick to making a street corn salad without the typical corn is canned baby corn, like the kind you see in Chinese takeout. It is surprisingly low in carbs with only 3g carbs and 2g of fiber (1 net carb!) per 3oz serving!
Besides the baby corn, I also add in some chopped zucchini and summer squash to make it a little lighter and to prevent too much of the ‘canned’ taste from the corn from seeping in. The result is super delicious!
Tips and Ingredient Substitutions:
- Be sure to thoroughly rinse the corn before chopping. This helps to remove any lingering metallic taste from the can.
- The recipe calls for some traditional Mexican ingredients: Cotija cheese and Mexican Crema. These are pretty widely available, but if you can’t find them you can sub feta or parmesan cheese for the Cotija and sour cream for the crema.
- I used to recommend heating the squash and zucchini to soften it a bit before mixing it with the other ingredients, but I have found that I actually prefer it left raw. If you want to soften it, just toss it in a skillet with a bit of oil until it’s softened to your liking.
- Feel free to sub the zucchini with yellow squash or vice versa.
- The chili lime seasoning is an absolute must. Otherwise, the recipe will be super bland. Tajin is my favorite, but Trader Joes also has a chili lime seasoning.
- This salad will keep well for about 2 days in the fridge. After that, it will begin to get a bit liquidy. If you want to make it in advance, I recommend preparing the vegetable and the dressing separately and waiting to combine until just before serving.
Be sure to check out these other great recipes:
- Chicken Taco Soup | Keto, Instant Pot
- Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
- Tres Leches | Keto, Gluten Free
- Homemade Taco Seasoning
Mexican Street Corn Salad | Keto
Ingredients
- 30 oz Canned Baby Corn
- 1 medium zucchini about 1 cup
- 1 medium yellow squash about 1 cup
- Salt and pepper
- 1/3 cup Mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup Mexican Crema (or sour cream)
- 1/2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese plus additional for serving
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp chili and lime seasoning (I use tajin) plus additional for serving
- lime wedges for serving optional
Instructions
- Empty the cans of baby corn into a colander and rinse thoroughly.
- Chop the zucchini, yellow squash and baby corm into small cubes (about the size of a corn kernel) and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, creama, lime juice, cotija, cilantro, chili powder, and chiili lime seasoning.
- Transfer the corn, zucchini and squash to a large bowl and top with the mayo mixture. Stir to combine.
- Serve sprinkled with additional chili lime seasoning, cotija cheese, and cilantro as well as a lime wedge if desired.
This is absolutely the worst dish I have ever tried. I always give a recipe a chance, having several people try it in case it’s just me. I made this for a party of 12, and no one liked it; all of it went in the trash. We even tried to doctor it up by adding more seasoning, etc, but nothing helped.
I omitted the zucchini and squash and I thought it was a pretty good take on street corn/elotes, especially as a low carb option, it gave me the flavors I wanted and I plan to make this with a variety of Mexican dishes in the future to bulk up the meal! Maybe you can try the same, I’m not a big fan of raw zucchini and squash, I think most people aren’t really lol.