Our corn salad recipe with bacon, pearl couscous, parsley and fried shallots is full of texture and flavour. Corn kernels are combined with crispy bacon, chewy pearl couscous, flat leaf parsley, and paprika piled onto garlicky yoghurt, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and showered with crunchy fried shallots. It’s fantastic with roast chicken, meatballs and kebabs.
This addictively delicious corn salad came about because I was craving this spicy Southeast Asian flavoured grilled corn salad with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayo, and sourdough croutons, which I concocted in our Siem Reap kitchen years ago during Cambodia’s corn season.
But sadly my mum doesn’t eat spicy food and no chance finding summer corn here in wintery Australia. Plus if I was lucky to find good limes they’d cost an arm and a leg, over-priced packets of fresh coriander are barely enough for garnishing, and no chance of sourcing the dried lemongrass powder I buy at our markets in Siem Reap. I’m so missing local markets.
My mum enjoys the Middle Eastern style dishes I make when I pile grilled vegetables onto a bed of hummus, butter bean puree or yoghurt, which I sprinkle with dukkah (or pangrattato) and shower with fresh herbs – as I did with this recipe for grilled baby carrots on yoghurt with dukkah – although I suspect she loves the beef kofta I serve them with even more.
If you’re a lover of corn salads, also try these recipes for Thai corn salad with tomatoes, green beans and peanuts, our Mexican grilled corn salad with Mexican cheese, chilli, coriander, and lime, and this Thai take on an American cobb salad by Thai chef Ian Kittichai. More recipes for dishes with corn here.
Corn Salad Recipe with Bacon, Pearl Couscous, Parsley and Crispy Fried Shallots
This corn salad recipe with bacon, pearl couscous, parsley, and fried shallots is partly the result of dreaming of warm climates, and of summer corn. I’d love to munch into these grilled cobs of corn with lime butter and lemongrass mayo (another one of my pandemic creations) or a piping hot cob of corn dripping in fish sauce-laced coconut cream, a Cambodian street food specialty.
I’m longing to return to Terence and Pepper in sultry Siem Reap; monsoon or no monsoon, I’m ready to embrace hot and steamy after such a brutal winter. I’m also missing the bustling streets of Southeast Asia, streets that have life to them – where locals love to sit, gossip, cook, sell, and eat on the footpaths, just centimetres from the bicycles, motorbikes, vehicles, rickshaws, and tuk tuks creating traffic chaos. It can be maddening but I miss it.
Admittedly I’ve been experiencing reverse culture shock, but I’m over places where cars rule and few people actually walk anywhere anymore, where people seem to spend their lives indoors, where house sizes have grown so large there’s barely space for a garden, and most yards are little more than small bare lawns with few trees or plants. My mother’s wonderful wild jungle-like garden is the exception rather than rule.
All of that is to explain why I’m sharing this summery corn salad recipe that’s seemingly chaotic with its combination of textures and flavours and fusion of ingredients, which, despite it’s Middle Eastern leanings, I’m calling quintessentially Australian. Just a few tips to making my corn salad recipe.
Tips to Making this Corn Salad Recipe with Bacon, Pearl Couscous, Parsley and Fried Shallots
I only have a few tips to making my corn salad recipe. Aside from longing for warm climes, this corn salad recipe with bacon, pearl couscous, flat leaf parsley, and fried shallots partly came about from a scrawled list of ingredients that I needed to use up. It’s nothing if not versatile. These tips include ideas for how you can adapt my corn salad, as delicious as it is.
There were the last rashers of a one-kilo pack of bacon bought from Aldi that I had to use. A one-kilo pack is so much more economical if you’re a bacon lover – separate it into meal portions (I go for a mix of 4-6 rashers), pack the bacon in sealable bags (squeeze out the air), and freeze them, pulling out a portion the morning or night before you plan to use it.
I’ve cooked the bacon differently each time I’ve tested this corn salad recipe – crispy the first time, just-cooked and juicy the second, and somewhere in between the last time, which I think is my preferred texture, and what you see in the photos in this post. Ham would also be delish. Cut it into small bite-size slices.
I had an opened box of pearl couscous, which I used for this pearl couscous, pomegranate, pistachios, and fresh herb salad, that I also wanted to use. While I love the chewy bouncy texture of pearl couscous, bulgur or quinoa would be great, too, and a small or medium grain couscous would also work.
If you can access fresh cobs of corn, you can boil, steam or grill the cobs, then slice off the kernels. If you can’t, use frozen corn or canned corn. I’ve used canned corn and it works a treat, the sweetness off-setting the richness of the bacon and freshness of the parsley.
Fresh flat leaf parsley is also perfect for its firmer leaves, but you could try fresh coriander or fresh dill, or a mix of herbs. I added a little ground Aleppo pepper, in keeping with the Middle Eastern theme, but ground paprika would also add warmth, and chilli flakes would give it a kick of heat.
I’ve combined the lot with extra virgin olive oil and piled it onto a generous spread of dense, creamy Greek yoghurt stirred through with minced garlic, but I also experimented with a mix of yoghurt, crème fraiche and leftover toum or toumeya, a Middle Eastern garlic condiment. All worked, so get creative with your leftovers.
Lastly, I drizzled on some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled on crispy fried shallots – you could make your own fried shallots or onions, but I’ve used store-bought fried shallots that I have on hand for my late night bowls of instant ramen, as I love their crunch.
I also like to sprinkle on some dukkah, the Middle Eastern nut, spice and seed condiment – but you can serve the dukkah, crunchy shallots and fresh herbs on the table for your guests to adjust their corn salad as they like. This salad is fantastic as a light meal or as a side to spiced meatballs and kebabs.
Corn Salad Recipe with Bacon, Pearl Couscous, Parsley and Fried Shallots
Ingredients
- ½ cup pearl couscous
- 4 bacon rashers - rinds removed, sliced into strips
- 450 g corn kernels - drained, fresh or canned corn
- 150 g Greek style yoghurt
- 1 garlic clove - minced
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley - roughly chopped
- ½ tsp ground Aleppo pepper - or ground paprika or chilli flakes
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - divided
- 2 tbsp fried shallots - store-bought is fine
- 1 tbsp dukkah - optional
Instructions
- Prepare the pearl couscous according to the packet instructions; when the pearl couscous is soft and chewy, drain it in a large fine mesh strainer, and set it aside to cool.
- In a large pan over medium-high heat, fry the bacon pieces until crispy – or cooked to your liking – then set the bacon aside to cool to room temperature.
- In a small bowl, gently stir the minced garlic into the creamy Greek style yoghurt then scoop the garlicky yoghurt onto a serving plate and use the back of the spoon to spread it out.
- To a big salad bowl, add the pearl couscous, crispy bacon pieces, drained corn kernels, salt, chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, ground Aleppo pepper (or ground paprika or chilli flakes), and tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Stir to combine, taste and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate.
- Pile the corn salad onto the garlicky yoghurt, drizzle with the rest of the extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle on the fried shallots, and serve immediately at the centre of the table with dishes of fresh parsley, fried shallots and dukkah so guests can adjust the salad as they like.
Notes
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our corn salad recipe as we love hearing how our recipes turn out for you.
