Elote Pasta Salad
and a James Beard Foundation Award for Tenderheart
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. Find archived recipes on my new recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
Apologies for the slightly late email this week. I have just arrived home from a weekend in Chicago for the James Beard Foundation Awards, where TENDERHEART won in the Vegetable-Focused Category. I’m thrilled, honoured, overwhelmed. Thank YOU all for being a huge part of my vegetable journey - this community is my anchor and I’m so grateful to each and every one of you who stops by and reads this newsletter every week. With gratitude, Hetty x
As I mentioned in my newsletter last week, my daughter Scout and I recently engaged in a lively debate about corn. She, a strong willed Gemini, has a passionate opinion about most things in life and it seems that corn was one of them. Her take down of corn was persuasive, and unequivocal, including the claim that offered “unwanted sweetness” (ironic, since she has a major sweet tooth) and ruins the texture of dishes. She also claimed that people in America ate too much ‘corn products’ in general so we should all just stop with corn.
I will admit, I am a big consumer of ‘corn products’. I love corn chips (especially these) and I eat popcorn daily (cannot get enough of these). I love tamales and arepas and I always prefer corn tortillas to flour. Who doesn’t love grits and polenta? And when it comes to sweetcorn, I will defend it to the end. My love of sweetcorn started in childhood, with my mother’s Chinese creamy corn soup, which she made using canned creamed corn. She stirred a beaten egg into the soup to create creamed corn egg drop soup.
Elote is the exception to to Scout’s anti-corn stance. I agree, Mexican elote is a fairly perfect dish - charred corn, slathered with crema, and dusted in spices, finished with cheese and lime. Buoyed by her approval of this singular corn dish, I have combined the flavours of elote, and esquites, a Mexican street corn dish, and incorporated that into a pasta salad. For the creamy element, which is usually Mexican crema, I’ve opted for an avocado cream, accented with lime, jalapeno and coriander (cilantro).
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
This new-ish recipe on NYT is worth trying for a simple midweek meal - Cumin Green Beans and Mushrooms.
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
Elote pasta salad
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love
Fresh corn is best for this salad, but frozen works too. If you don’t have or like mayonnaise, substitute with yoghurt or a vegan cashew cream.
Serves 4
450g (1 pound) short pasta such as farfalle, fusilli or penne
extra virgin olive oil
3 ears of corn, kernels removed (3 cups kernels, about 500g / just over 1 pound)
sea salt and black pepper
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, plus extra for serving
1/2 teaspoon ancho chili flakes or red chili (pepper) flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 handfuls rocket (arugula) leaves
1 lime, halved
handful coriander leaves
Avocado cream
1 ripe avocado, seed removed
3 tablespoons lime juice (from 1-2 limes)
1/4 - 1/2 jalapeño, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1/3 cup (80g) vegan or dairy mayonnaise
small handful coriander (cilantro) leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions. Drain, refresh under cold water until cool and drain again
Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan (skillet) on medium high for 2 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and add the corn, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, chili flakes, cumin and toss to combine. Cook undisturbed for 2 minutes to allow the corn to char, then toss and leave to cook undisturbed for another 2 minutes until there is nice colour on the corn. Turn off the heat.
To make the avocado dressing, add the avocado, lime juice, jalapeño pepper, garlic, mayonnaise, coriander (cilantro) leaves, olive oil to a small blender or food processor. Blitz until smooth. Add salt and about 3 to 4 tablespoons of water and blend again. The cream should be pourable - if it is too thick, add more water, a splash at a time, until it is loose enough to pour.
To a large bowl, add the pasta, corn, avocado cream and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat the pasta. Add the rocket (arugula) and toss again. Taste and make sure the seasoning is correct, adding more sea salt and black pepper if needed.
To serve, squeeze over some lime juice, sprinkle over a little smoked paprika, and top with coriander (cilantro) leaves.
Congrats on the James Beard award! Tenderheart totally deserves it.
Congratulations Hetty! 🎊