Best Summer Corn Recipes for Grilled Corn Cobs, Corn Salads and Corn in a Cup

>Creamy Corn Chowder Recipe with Potatoes, Parmesan and Croutons

Our corn chowder recipe makes a creamy potato corn chowder with Parmigiano Reggiano, scallions and croutons and it’s one of our best summer corn recipes. The chowder is ever so lightly spiced with a little curry powder, turmeric and paprika to add warmth. A rind of Parmigiano Reggiano melts in the chowder adding a kick of umami, while crunchy homemade croutons add texture.

I’m happy to slurp a bowl of in summer or winter, a deliciously dense creamy corn soup, traditionally thickened with milk or cream, although I prefer potato, imbued with spices and herbs, and in the USA sprinkled or served with crackers or biscuits in the early days, although I opt for crunchy homemade croutons instead.

My corn chowder recipe is both dairy-free and vegetarian, which means I’ve skipped another key ingredient of old fashioned corn chowders, and that’s pork, which in modern day chowders generally takes the form of crispy fried strips of bacon sprinkled on top. You can certainly add bacon if you wish.

Creamy Corn Chowder Recipe with Potatoes, Parmesan, Croutons and a Potted Chowder History

Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter and Lemongrass Mayonnaise Recipe

This grilled corn with lime butter and lemongrass mayonnaise recipe is my favourite grilled corn on the cob recipe and one of our best summer corn recipes. It’s a fusion dish of sorts, inspired by a few favourites of Cambodian food and Mexican street food.

Inspirations include the popular street food snack in Cambodia of grilled corn on the cob slathered with mayonnaise, lime juice and chilli flakes; the more traditional Cambodian grilled corn, poat dot, which is brushed with a sauce of coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, and spring onions; and the Mexican grilled corn street food dish, below.

We like to char-grill our corn on the cob on our griddle pan on the stove, over a traditional clay brazier, as most Cambodians do at home and on the streets (we use these coconut charcoal BBQ briquettes, which we love), or on our stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan. But you could also use an outdoor barbecue or grill.

Grilled Corn on the Cob with Lime Butter and Lemongrass Mayonnaise Recipe

Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons

This grilled corn salad recipe with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons uses up grilled corn on the cob leftovers from your weekend barbecues and those hard sourdough bread ends you didn’t finish.

It’s a fantastic salad for spring picnics and summer barbecues and can also serve as a meal on its own. My grilled corn salad recipe with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayonnaise, and sourdough croutons and crumbs was conceived to use up some grilled corn on the cob leftovers, along with some lemongrass mayo. I was also getting homesick and nostalgic for the corn salads of family barbecues in Sydney in the 1970s.

Terence also happened to have a crunchy end of near-stale sourdough bread as, avid sourdough baker that he is, he’s pulling homemade sourdough boules out of the oven every few days (if you’re new to sourdough baking, see his easy sourdough beginner’s guide).

Naturally, I asked him to make some sourdough croutons and crunchy toasted sourdough crumbs, which gave this fragrant grilled corn salad fantastic texture.

Grilled Corn Salad Recipe With Lime, Chilli, Lemongrass Mayo and Sourdough Croutons

Mexican Grilled Corn Recipe – How to Make Mexico’s Street Food Corn Called Elotes

This Mexican grilled corn recipe makes Mexico’s corn on the cob street food snack called elotes. It’s another of our best summer corn recipes. Super easy, it makes use of summer corn and is fantastic on its own or can be served as a barbecue side.

We became addicted to this in Mexico on our first trip to the country way back in 1993 and we ate it everywhere every chance we got, from Mexico City to Oaxaca, whether it was served either on the cob or in a cup.

When we returned home to Australia after a couple of months travelling around Mexico and the USA (where we had eloped and got married in the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas), we began making this Mexican grilled corn recipe – and hosting Mexican themed dinner parties and sunset margaritas on weekend evenings on our Potts Point balcony.

We were infatuated with Mexico. And there’s nothing like recreating the food and drinks of a place you travelled to and loved when you return home to transport you back to that destination – and that’s what we did with the food and drink of Mexico in our Sydney apartment all those years ago.

Mexican Grilled Corn Recipe – How to Make Mexico’s Street Food Corn Called Elotes

Mexican Grilled Corn Salad Recipe for a Taste of Mexico at Home

This Mexican grilled corn salad recipe can be made from scratch or can be assembled using any leftovers from the Mexican grilled corn on the cob street food snack recipe for elotes, above. It’s a terrific salad for corn lovers and is fantastic for summer barbecues and picnics.

I don’t know about you, but we can’t always get ancho chilli powder here in Cambodia, which is why we say “and/or” dried chilli flakes. We have to use dried chilli flakes most of the time, which we adore anyway. I can sprinkle chilli flakes on everything, so that’s what we’re sprinkling on our corn cobs.

If you can’t get Mexico’s cotija cheese or Mexican crema (which we also can’t get here), use white cheese or crumbly feta cheese (or a combination of both) and sour cream, cream or creamy mayonnaise (or a combination of all!).

Mexican Grilled Corn Salad Recipe for a Taste of Mexico at Home

Mexican Street Corn in a Cup Recipe – How to Make Esquites or Elote en Vaso

Our Mexican street corn in a cup recipe for Mexico’s esquites or elote en vaso, which means ‘corn in a cup’, makes a Mexican street food snack or antojitos meaning ‘little cravings’, that we became addicted to on our first trip to Mexico many years ago.

Like most Mexican food, it’s absolutely delicious, and it’s undoubtedly another of our best summer corn recipes. It’s also super easy to make, especially if you have leftover corn on the cob. Esquites or elote en vaso consists of steaming hot corn kernels with Mexican crema, cotija cheese, lime juice, and ancho chilli powder that’s sold in a takeaway cup.

It comes with a spoon and you stir it all up and the first time you try it on the streets of Mexico City or Merida or Oaxaca, like a slap to the face – or a whack to a piñata – you realise what’s been missing in your life. Our easy Mexican street corn in a cup recipe is quick to come together, too, particularly if you made our Mexican street corn on the cob recipe and have some corn cobs leftover.

Mexican Street Corn in a Cup Recipe – How to Make Esquites or Elote en Vaso

Thai Corn Salad Recipe for a Filling Summer Lunch or a Perfect Side for Thai Style Fried Chicken

Our easy Thai corn salad recipe makes a fantastic filling salad that is the perfect light summer lunch or an ideal side for dinner when paired with spicy Thai fried chicken.

Our recipe makes a simple tossed salad that’s based on a popular Bangkok som tam style salad that’s traditionally pounded in a mortar and pestle at a street food stall. While we do love a good som tam, for us this salad works best as a tossed salad.

Like all great salads, it requires fantastic fresh ingredients, so do try to get hold of fresh corn on the cob if you can. If you can’t – if corn is not in season in your neck of the woods – canned corn kernels would do the trick. Canned beans and tinned carrots will not.

Thai Corn Salad Recipe for a Filling Summer Lunch or a Perfect Side for Thai Style Fried Chicken

This Thai Corn Fritters Recipe for Tod Man Khao Pod is Made for Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Our Thai corn fritters recipe makes tod man khao pod in Thai – crunchy, chewy corn fritters that we gently spice with a little chilli paste.

Eaten as a snack in Thailand and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, you could serve these Thai corn fritters as finger food or as an appetiser. They’re fantastic dipped into Thai sweet chilli sauce.

If you made a batch of our homemade sweet chilli sauce, then you need to make these delightfully crunchy, chewy corn fritters, seasoned with a little chilli paste, which are perfect for dipping into that sweet chilli sauce. Bonus: these also happen to be vegan corn fritters.

This Thai Corn Fritters Recipe for Tod Man Khao Pod is Made for Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Corn Fritter Breakfast Burger Recipe with Fried Egg and Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

This corn fritter breakfast burger recipe is easily another of our best summer corn recipes. After making a final version of my delicious Thai corn fritters, we had a few leftover fritters – ok, a lot of extra fritters! – we also had burger buns from recipe testing, and a fresh jar of homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce, and, so our corn fritter and fried egg breakfast burger was born.

This corn fritter breakfast burger recipe with fried egg and Thai sweet chilli sauce makes an incredibly delicious vegetarian breakfast burger that’s packed with flavour and crunch. With a Southeast Asian twist on the classic breakfast burger, it’s so good you won’t miss the burger patty and bacon, and the grease that comes with it, one bit.

If you made our Thai corn fritters recipe and you have a batch of our homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce in the fridge, then you’re all set to go.

Corn Fritter Breakfast Burger Recipe with Fried Egg and Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Vietnamese Sweet Corn Pudding Recipe for Che Bap

This easy Vietnamese sweet corn pudding recipe makes che bap in the Hoi An style of Central Vietnam. Che bap is the Southern Vietnam sweet corn pudding, while che ngo is the Northern Vietnam sweet corn pudding.

This recipe makes the Central Vietnam sweet corn pudding called che bap or more correctly, chè bắp. We lived in the ancient port town of Hoi An’s atmospheric historic centre before we moved to Cambodia’s Siem Reap and might have still been living there if it wasn’t for a ‘mistake’ made by our visa agent.

This recipe makes the chè bắp that we used to eat as a late afternoon treat, perched on the lovely chè seller’s tiny wooden stools on the sunny square by the Hoi An river. Chè is a style of Vietnamese dessert that can be like a pudding, a porridge, even a soup.

Some chè sellers offer a dozen or more sweets, while some, like our chè bắp vendor in Hoi An, specialise in just a few. It’s another of our best summer corn recipes. 

Vietnamese Sweet Corn Pudding Recipe for Che Bap in the Hoi An Style of Central Vietnam