A nutritious Mexican-inspired Quinoa Corn Salad with fresh avocado, crisp corn, black beans, cilantro, and green onions. This salad is dressed in our favorite chipotle-lime vinaigrette. The dressing packs a punch, so if you’d like to try this salad with a less spicy dressing, I’d recommend the dressing on this Mexican chopped salad instead!

Quinoa Corn Salad

This salad was inspired by a craving for this popular Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad. I decided that since I might not be the only one trying to eat more veggies this month I should create a more nutritious version of that salad. While this salad ended up pretty different from the Mexican pasta salad, it has similar ingredients — corn, black beans, cotija cheese, fresh lime, lots of cilantro, and green onions. And while this salad is insanely tasty, the real star here is the chipotle vinaigrette — it’s spicy, tangy, and downright addictive!

Chipotle Vinaigrette

This dressing is one of our absolute favorites and a total show stopper in this Quinoa Corn Salad. It’s a mix of red wine vinegar, honey, oil, herbs, garlic, lime juice, and chipotle pepper. Below are a few notes about this dressing:

For the chipotle pepper in the dressing, we use chipotle chilies in adobo (1 pepper and the accompanying sauce). You can find canned Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce in the Latin aisle of most grocery stores. See the quick tip below on storing leftovers!
Taste and adjust the dressing to personal preference. The chipotle is important to balance the dressing (so it isn’t too sweet), but add it slowly and taste as you go, so you don’t end up with an overly spicy dressing. Remember the dressing will taste spicier straight out of the blender but does simmer down when you add in all the veggies and quinoa.
While this dressing can be made ahead of time (and leftovers stored), note that flavors intensify and it becomes spicier as it sits.
If the dressing ends up too spicy, try adding some more honey to sweeten and counteract the heat.
If you’re concerned about the spiciness of the dressing, use the sauce from the can instead of the actual pepper; it has the same great flavor, but much less heat.

Quick Tip

There’s nothing worse than using only one or two peppers (like in this recipe) and not being able to use the rest of the can before it goes bad. Luckily, canned chipotle peppers freeze beautifully! Here’s how to freeze leftover chipotles:

Spread a sheet of parchment paper onto a large pan.
Spoon out peppers with sauce, 1/2 inch apart, on to the pan. Place the pan in the freezer until peppers and sauce are frozen solid, about 1 hour.
Once frozen, the peppers and sauce will easily peel off the tray.
Add all the frozen peppers to a freezer-safe plastic bag, seal while pressing out any air, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
To thaw, take as many peppers as needed out of the bag and let stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes or until thawed through (or pop individual peppers in the microwave for 10-15 seconds).

Let’s talk quinoa

We eat quinoa salads a lot at my home. My number one tip is to prepare the quinoa ahead of time. With cooked and cooled quinoa ready to throw in the salad, the prep time goes quickly. Waiting for quinoa to fully cook, steam, and cool is easy enough, but time-consuming.

That said, if you’re making the quinoa at the same time you’re making this quinoa corn salad, here’s how to speed up the process for quinoa cooling: Spread the cooked and fluffed quinoa on a sheet pan in one even layer. Place the sheet pan in the fridge (or freezer) for 10-15 minutes or until cooled to room temperature.

A few other quinoa tips:

Make sure to rinse the quinoa before cooking it. Quinoa has a natural coating called saponin which can make it taste bitter. Pour the uncooked quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold water for 30 seconds to a minute.
- Want to skip this step? Some quinoa comes pre-rinsed; check the package to see if that is mentioned.
Allow time for the quinoa to steam. Once the liquid is absorbed, don’t rush to cool the quinoa, instead, let it stand (covered) for at least 10 minutes. Letting the quinoa stand allows the quinoa to fully “pop” and ensures it doesn’t end up watery or mushy.
If the quinoa has cooked through, but there is still liquid in the pot, make sure to drain off that liquid to avoid soft or mushy quinoa. Alternatively, if the quinoa has not cooked through (the grains haven’t visibly popped), but the liquid has absorbed, add a few more tablespoons of liquid.

Two options for the corn

There is nothing that compares to good, sweet, fresh corn on the cob! If you have access to it, that makes the perfect addition to Quinoa Corn Salad. That said, frozen (and thawed) or canned (and thoroughly drained) corn also works well. When preparing the corn for this salad there are two options:

Add the raw corn to the salad. Simply cut the corn from the cob, thaw the frozen corn, or drain the canned corn and toss it in the salad. My family loves the crunch of uncooked corn kernels in this salad– plus, it’s easy!
Char the corn. If you’d like the corn roasted or charred, cook it on a grill pan or grill or in a nonstick skillet. Here are more instructions:
1. To char canned corn, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon butter or oil and then the well-drained corn in one even layer. Let it sit, stirring occasionally until you get a nice browning on the outside of the corn (I don’t stir often so it browns!). Remove the corn from the heat and set aside allowing it to cool completely.
2. To grill corn on the cob, preheat a grill (or grill pan) to medium-high heat, around 400 degrees F. Remove the husks and silk from the corn. Pour about 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil on each corn cob and rub that oil onto all the sides. Very lightly sprinkle salt and pepper on all sides of the corn. Place the corn on grill grates (nothing needs to go down first; don’t wrap in foil) and close the grill. Cook (temps remaining at 400F) for about 3 minutes per side, undisturbed. Turn the corn and continue cooking for about 12 minutes in total. When all sides are browned, remove from the grill onto a plate. When cool enough to handle, cut the corn from the cobs.