Are you familiar with esquites? Also known as elote en vaso, esquites are an experience you’ll remember. Esquites are Mexican street corn (elote) cut off the cob, served in salad form.

Esquites are creamy, tangy, spicy, sweet and savory all at once. In other words, they’re completely irresistible. This elote recipe was the best recipe to come off our grill last summer, and I’m excited to share this stovetop variation with you.

Esquites share the same ingredients with elote: fresh corn, mayonnaise, cilantro, chili powder, lime and crumbled Cotija cheese. The combination is sublime, and this variation is much easier to eat. I’ve enjoyed both options in Mexico City and love making them at home. I’m going to cook this simple salad all summer and through the rest of the year.

Esquites have one strong cooking advantage over elote—you can start with frozen corn kernels, which really cuts down on preparation time! We’ll just cook the frozen corn in a hot skillet until it’s seared and delicious. If you’re using frozen corn, you can prepare this dish in about twenty minutes, from start to finish.

Watch How to Make Esquites

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Make this Southwestern corn chowder for a cozy dinner at home! This vegetarian corn chowder recipe is fresh, wholesome and delicious. It’s perfect for cool late summer or fall evenings when fresh corn is at its peak. Or, you can make it any time with frozen corn.

I wanted the corn flavor to shine and balanced its sweetness with some Southwestern spice. You’ll find bell pepper, poblano and chili powder in this atypical chowder. I promise you will not miss the bacon.

I purposefully avoided using the heavy cream that you’ll find in most chowder recipes. Heavy cream has a tendency to dull flavors and also makes me feel weighed down. Instead, I blended a bit of butter into the soup (one of my favorite soup tricks) and stirred in some crème fraîche or sour cream at the end. These dairy ingredients offer some creaminess, of course, plus some tanginess that you won’t get from plain cream.

You can easily make this soup dairy free or vegan, if desired. You’ll love the end results either way!

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Sufferin’ succotash! I promise, that’s my last Loony Tunes reference. This vegetarian succotash recipe is fresh, vibrant and bacon-free. It features pan-seared corn, plump lima beans and fresh peppers.

Make this recipe now with fresh early fall produce, or bookmark it for your Thanksgiving table. You can easily use thawed frozen corn if fresh sweet corn is hard to come by.

As you’ll read below, succotash has Native American roots and many variations. Here in Kansas City, succotash is the namesake dish at a local restaurant called Succotash.

This recipe is my own interpretation of this uniquely American dish. I seared the corn in a skillet to develop more complex flavor. I added a variety of peppers (poblano, bell pepper and optional jalapeño) for some spice to help balance the sweetness of the corn. I’ve written the recipe to give you as much control as possible over the spice level, since individual preferences and corn’s sweetness can vary so much.

I omitted tomatoes because they made this dish more stew-like, and it’s more of a warm salad without. Creamy butter (no cream) and fresh herbs make this produce-driven, vegetarian side dish completely irresistible.

Watch How to Make Vegetarian Succotash

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What is elote? Elote (pronounced eh-loh-tay) is Mexican street corn. If you’ve had it, I bet you love it. If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat! Elote tastes sweet and savory, tangy and spicy all at once. I love to make mine with grilled corn for some smokiness, too.

Elote is made with corn on the cob, slathered with mayonnaise, seasoned with chili powder and fresh lime juice, sprinkled all over with salty Cotija cheese and cilantro. It’s messy to eat but worth every bite. Elote is the perfect summertime side dish for any Mexican-inspired meal.

In Mexico, elote means an ear of corn, and this recipe replicates a popular serving style sold by street vendors. I can’t claim that this elote recipe is quite authentic, but it brings me back to the elotes I enjoyed in Mexico City.

I’m dreaming of traveling throughout Mexico, sampling the cuisine region by region. Someday! For now, we’re making the most of dinner at home.

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It’s sweet corn season, and I’ve had a hankering for some great corn on the cob. You know the corn I’m talking about—golden and plump kernels with some irresistible, caramelized grill marks.

Slathered with real butter and sprinkled with salt, there’s not much better. It might be my favorite thing to come off the barbecue.

Last summer, our family and friends gave us a gas grill as a wedding gift. Now that I finally have access to one, I’ve had fun learning how to use it.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve tried all the corn grilling methods out there and developed my own. This recipe yields perfect grilled corn on the cob, every time!

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This super fresh corn salad recipe is bursting with fresh-from-the-garden goodness. This salad features fresh sweet corn, cucumber, radishes, tomato, herbs and jalapeño tossed in a simple vinaigrette. Creamy feta or avocado brings it all together.

This salad would make a beautiful presentation at your summertime get-togethers or on your dinner table. It goes well with grilled options and balances out heavier main dishes. I think it would look cute as an appetizer, served in small glasses or ramekins.

It’s been so hot in Kansas City lately that I’ve fully embraced raw summer produce. I’m a big fan of raw sweet corn, but you could grill your corn first if you’d like some smoky flavor. This corn salad recipe is delicious either way.

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It’s blazing hot outside. Let’s make some corn salsa and turn it into a meal! Like Chipotle’s corn salsa, this version with fresh sweet corn goes great in tacos, burritos (or burrito bowls), and quesadillas.

This refreshing corn salsa would also complement grilled mains, like my go-to veggie burgers. You could even pile this salsa onto greens to make it a salad for lunch—just add a drizzle of olive oil and an extra splash of vinegar, if you’d like.

This corn salsa recipe is made primarily with fresh sweet corn, red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and lime juice. I added a few basic pantry seasonings for intrigue and oomph—white wine vinegar, chili powder and ground cumin.

This salsa is fresh and bright, and it’s easy to make. The sweet corn steals the show, as it should. I hope you love it as much as I do!

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The inspiration for this black bean salad recipe goes way back. It goes all the way back to my very first recipe post over seven years ago. I was just learning to cook for myself after college, and I started making that black bean salsa on repeat.

This Mexican-ish/Southwestern black bean salad recipe is based on my old salsa recipe, but it’s way better.

Back then, Cookie and Kate was just a creative project. Well, Cookie (my dog) and I very much existed, but the blog was just to keep me from losing my mind at a boring office job.

I finally shared that recipe, and realized that I could wrap stories and photos around a healthy, approachable recipe. Seven years later, I work on this blog full-time and have a cookbook under my belt. I’m not bored at work any more! I love what I do. Thank you for letting me do it.

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These sweet corn tacos are perfect for hot summer days. I opted not to cook or grill the corn—it’s so creamy and sweet when it’s fresh—and instead marinate it in lime juice, with some lime zest to really set it off. (You could grill it, though, if you prefer!)

Finely sliced radishes and jalapeño lend a bit of crunch and heat, while sliced avocado and feta finish it off.

Sometimes I find corn to be a little too sweet, so if you’re like me, you might want to add some pickled jalapeños on top. This recipe yields quite a lot of tacos (about 10 well-filled tacos), so you could probably halve it if need be. The individual components should keep well in the fridge if you want to assemble more tacos later.

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Here we are, smack dab in the middle of June, and I’m looking out at gray skies. Why?! I don’t know about you, but dreary weather slows me down and sunshine motivates me to skip right along. At least I have a bowl full of summertime goodness in the fridge to tide me over for a while.

This salad concept came to me when I found an ear of corn in my vegetable drawer, a remnant of my cowboy caviar recipe. I whipped up a bold pesto made with fresh cilantro and parsley, toasted pepitas and a jalapeño, which adds extra freshness and a bit of kick.

Then I tossed in some sliced tomatoes, raw corn and black beans. Pasta salad for days! You can easily change up the flavors, and I’ve typed up some suggestions below.

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