I do not like tomatoes. While I love the taste of tomatoes, I won’t touch anything that resembles a fresh tomato. As you might imagine, this limits my options for fresh salsas. Enter corn salsa. When I tried it at Chipotle, it was love at first bite. It’s crisp, fresh, flavorful and contains no trace of tomato.

Inspired by my love of Chipotle’s corn salsa, I set out to create a reasonable approximation at home. When I first started making the salsa, I used this recipe from About.com as my guide, but now I just eyeball all of the ingredients. This is a non-particular recipe that can be easily adjusted to suit individual preference. I can safely say that I use more jalapeno, cilantro and onion than called for in the original recipe.

You can certainly use frozen corn to make this salsa, but it tastes even better with fresh, native corn stripped from the cob. When I use fresh corn, I boil a few ears as if I were going to serve it and then slice the kernels from the cob. The fresh corn lends a crisp sweetness to the salsa.

I’m growing jalapeno peppers this year, as well as cilantro. The starter pepper plants look good, as long as the squirrels leave the tiny peppers alone! I started the cilantro from seed, and it just sprouted a few days ago. Every few weeks, I plan to sow a new batch of cilantro so I will have a continuous supply. By the time my favorite farm stand is selling their native corn, I hope to have jalapenos and cilantro from my garden to use in this salsa!

Since it’s so easy to put together, this salsa has become a summer staple in my household. It’s delicious as an accompaniment to corn chips, or grilled meats. In face, it complements tequila lime chicken beautifully. However you sever it, this corn salsa is simple, fresh and flavorful.

Corn Salsa

2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed (2-3 medium ears of fresh corn)
1/3 cup chopped red onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (juice of one lime)
1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours.
3. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Tags: Cilantro, Mexican, Onion, Pepper, Salsa

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Appetizers, Sauce/Salsa, Side Dishes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.