My recipe for grilled baby corn with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios is inspired by those deliciously addictive dishes from the Middle East that marry different textures and flavours, such as our warm chickpea salad. It makes a fantastic snack or starter or vegetable side dish to a meaty main such as an Arabic mixed grill.
You’re going to adore this grilled baby corn recipe with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios if you loved our recipe for cauliflower florets oven-roasted in spiced olive oil, piled onto creamy hummus and topped with crunchy fried chickpeas, zingy pickled shallots, and fresh mint leaves. They’re practically siblings.
And if you haven’t made our hummus balila recipe for a warm chickpea salad with a crunchy Arabic salad spread on top, or our Antalya piyaz, a white bean salad of creamy soupy white beans topped with a Turkish salad and soft jammy eggs, then try those, too. They’re more like cousins, I guess.
And, yes, I confess to being a little bit obsessed with creating these Middle East-inspired creamy bean-based salads and vegetable sides, textured with nuts and infused with spiced oils. I’ve been motivated partly by a desire to incorporate more veggies and beans into our diets and partly by a longing for Middle Eastern food.
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Now let me tell you all about my recipe for grilled baby corn with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios.
Grilled Baby Corn Recipe with Creamy Butter Beans, Caramelised Shallots and Crispy Pistachios
I love this char-grilled baby corn recipe even more than the oven-roasted cauliflower recipe I linked to above. What’s not to love? Charred in a griddle pan, the baby corn is tossed with caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios in a cumin-spiced extra virgin olive oil, before being piled onto a creamy butter bean spread, and sprinkled with fresh dill.
Terence and I polished the lot off immediately after the photo shoot and were completed satisfied. (I even skipped dinner.) I can see this dish standing out amongst an array of mezze plates although I’d intended it to serve as a warm starter or a vegetable side dish.
While not strictly Middle Eastern (I don’t recall seeing baby corn used during our many years living in the region), it’s Middle Eastern in flavour and texture and would be a fantastic accompaniment to an Arabic mixed grilled and perfect companion to dishes such as baba ganoush, fattoush and beef kofta and the like.
I only have a few tips to making this char-grilled baby corn recipe, as it’s too easy.
Tips to Making this Grilled Baby Corn Recipe
I know I say this a lot and probably sound like a broken record at times, but this char grilled baby corn recipe with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios is super easy to make and comes together quickly, so just a few tips.
First make the white bean spread, which is actually the white bean dip that I shared last year, which we usually eat with homemade pita chips, but I’ve incorporated that recipe into the recipe below for your convenience.
To make that white bean dip, all you do is transfer all the ingredients to a blender and blitz them until you have a smooth-ish consistency. I like it a little rustic so you can still taste some bean. Do taste it and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate.
Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil in both the butter bean spread and on the corn if you can afford it. It’s worth it for the flavour.
There’s no need to splash the stuff around like TV chefs do. To avoid wastage, I use a silicone pastry brush to brush a thin coating on the griddle pan and on the baby corn. (I don’t use olive oil sprays as aerosol cans are harmful to the environment.)
Pistachios are insanely expensive here, so I bought a small packet that was in the supermarket confectionary and snack section and they were super-crunchy in contrast to the larger packs in the dried fruits and nuts section, which are often old and stale.
My char grilled baby corn recipe calls for ground cumin but the quintessential Middle Eastern spice, ground sumac, would work well. I also sprinkled some chilli flakes on, which added a little heat, but ground Aleppo pepper would be great.
Grilled Baby Corn Recipe with Creamy Butter Beans, Caramelised Shallots and Crispy Pistachios
Ingredients
- 210 g tin butter beans drained and rinsed
- 2 small garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp creamy Greek-style yogurt
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 400 g baby corn
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 scallions or spring onions white ends only, sliced
- 50 g pistachios shelled
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp fresh dill roughly chopped
Instructions
- First make the white bean dip by transferring all the ingredients to a blender and blend until you have a smooth consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate.
- Use a silicone brush to brush a griddle pan with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, heat over high heat, brush the baby corn cobs with the olive oil as you lay them out on the pan, sprinkle on the salt, and grill for 3-5 minutes until the corn cobs have char marks on them.
- Use small tongs to turn the corn over, brush with oil, season with more salt, and once charred remove the corn from heat to a tray.
- In a fry pan over medium-high, heat a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, fry the sliced white ends of the scallions/spring onions until golden-brown, add the pistachios and half a teaspoon of ground cumin, stir to combine and fry for another minute until the scallions are almost charred. Add the corn and toss to coat with the spiced, nutty scallion oil then remove from heat.
- On a large serving plate, thickly spread the garlicky white bean dip, drizzle on more extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle on the remaining half-teaspoon of ground cumin, arrange the charred baby corn on top, pour on any remaining scallion oil, sprinkle on the chopped fresh dill, and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the Comments below if you make our grilled baby corn with creamy butter beans, caramelised shallots and crispy pistachios, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
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