Elote Pasta Salad
A unique twist on everyone's favorite Mexican side-dish and the perfect addition to your summer cookouts. A combination of roasted corn, a creamy chili + limi dressing, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro makes this recipe truly delicious.
Ingredients
- 12 oz. rotini pasta
- 3 cups fire roasted corn I love the Trader Joe’s frozen fire roasted corn
- 3/4 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tsp Tajin just to sprinkle on top
For the dressing
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/8 tsp of cayenne
- 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper
- 1 tsp lime zest (zest from 2 limes)
- 3 tbsp lime juice (juice from 1 lime)
Instructions
- Get a pot of water boiling and cook pasta as called for on package, drain and drizzle with olive oil in the strainer (this keeps it from sticking together while it cools).
- In a small bowl, make your dressing by mixing your sour cream (or greek yogurt), mayo, chili powder, garlic powder, olive oil, cayenne, salt & pepper, lime zest, and lime juice. Whisk together and set aside.
- Strain your pasta and run cold water over it to stop it from cooking. Drizzle it with olive oil and mix (this is so it doesn't stick together while it cools) and place in the fridge.
- While your pasta is cooling, chop up your fresh cilantro and crumble your cotija cheese, set aside.
- Once your pasta is cooled, add it to a large bowl. Take your full bag of frozen roasted corn and add to a strainer and run warm water on it to thaw it out. Add about 2.5c of this corn to your pasta (save a bit for topping).
- Add 1/2c of your cotija cheese (save the rest for topping), add 1/3 cup cilantro (save the rest for topping). Add about 3/4 of the dressing to the pasta. Mix well. Save the rest of your dressing because you’ll want to add a bit more as it sits and soaks some up!
- Garnish your pasta salad with a bit more corn, cotija cheese, and cilantro and sprinkle with tajin. Enjoy!