Corn Salad With Feta: Give It A Middle Eastern Vibe
A really simple, but delicious salad, that’s full of summer goodness. This recipe for corn feta salad is fresh, vibrant, sweet, salty and full of middle eastern flavours. Enjoy as a light lunch for one, a side dish for two or up the quantities for a buffet style party or potluck. You decide.
As the last days of summer fade away, I can’t get enough of the abundant produce you get at this time of year. Sweetcorn is at its prime and this corn feta salad is a very good way to enjoy those last rays of sunshine.
Dive Right In
- Why Make Corn Salad With Feta?
- Corn Feta Salad
- Ingredients
- How To Make Corn Salad With A Middle Easter Vibe
- How To Make Vegan Corn Salad
- What To Eat Corn Salad With
- Other Sweetcorn Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
Why Make Corn Salad With Feta?
Apart from the fact this sweetcorn and feta salad is both quick and easy to make, it’s quite a versatile vegetarian dish. It works as a stand alone light meal, a side dish or meze. I love it.
- Colourful – If eating the rainbow is your thing, this corn salad is a joy to both look at and eat. Green parsley, yellow corn and red peppers mix to create a vibrant and colourful feast for the senses. And the bonus is that all that colour means high levels of healthy phytochemicals.
- Delicious Combination of Flavours and Textures – Fresh peppery parsley, crunchy peppers, creamy salty feta and sweet juicy corn all dressed up with zip and verve.
- Healthy – Perhaps not surprisingly, this corn salad is packed with a whole host of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It’s also low in calories.
- Quick and Easy – There’s nothing complicated about this recipe and it takes less than fifteen minutes to make.
- Seasonal Produce – Makes the most of late summer sweetcorn and peppers. However, you don’t need to confine yourself to this time of year. Use tinned sweetcorn and you can enjoy it in any season.
- Versatile – Serve on its own for a light lunch or supper, or as a side to accompany all sorts of dishes. It makes a fabulous meze and is great for parties, picnics and potlucks.
Sweetcorn Feta Salad
Simple summer salads like this corn salad are some of my favourites. They don’t contain many ingredients and are quick and easy to make, yet they add up to more than the sum of their parts.
Sweetcorn really comes into its own at the end of summer. It’s just about as sweet as it will ever get. Combined with red peppers, green parsley, pungent spring onions and salty feta cheese, this corn salad is full of colour, texture and contrasting flavours.
All of these ingredients are common in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. Add lemon juice, olive oil and a couple of middle eastern spices and you have the perfect meze.
Ingredients And Substitutions
Apart from the dressing you only need five ingredients to make this salad and two of those are sweetcorn and feta cheese. The dressing contains a couple of middle eastern spices which ramp up the flavours, but don’t overpower.
Corn
If you can get fresh corn on the cob that’s still in its husk, go for it. Look for green husks rather than yellow ones and silks at the top that are light brown in colour. If you grow your own, I’m envious.
Fresh corn gets its sweetness from natural sugars. They convert to starch quickly after harvest, so the fresher you can get them, the better.
Otherwise, buy ready shucked corn cobs. If you can’t find these, tinned sweetcorn is perfectly acceptable.
Whilst corn is high in carbs and can potentially spike blood sugar levels, it’s packed with fibre, both soluble and insoluble, so is excellent for gut health. It also contains good amounts of magnesium, potassium, vitamins C and various Bs. (Ref: Healthline)
Fact
Did you know that corn is a grass? It’s in the same family as rice, wheat and barley.
Feta Cheese
Choose a plain feta cheese, preferably in brine. Look for Greek feta made from sheep’s milk or a combination of sheep’s and goat’s milk. These are the best for salads as they just taste better. They’re also more authentic.
As an aside, many people are more tolerant to sheep and goat’s milk than they are to cow’s milk.
Feta is surprisingly low in calories. It also contains less fat than hard cheeses such as Cheddar. Like most cheese, it contains important nutrients such as protein, calcium, vitamin K, various B vitamins, zinc, selenium and phosphorus. (Ref: Healthline)
The downside is that it’s quite a salty cheese, so you may not want to add any additional salt to the salad.
Of course, if you’re after a plant-based meal, you can use a vegan feta instead.
Parsley
Parsley is probably the herb I use most often in my cooking. Its fresh slightly peppery taste enhances no end of recipes. It grows well in the UK, but is also widely used throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East.
It’s a highly nutritious plant and is literally packed with vitamins A, C and K as well as various antioxidants.
I generally use curly-leaf parsley, because it’s easier to grow in our garden and doesn’t get as tough as outdoor flat-leaf parsley seems to do in our climate. But either are absolutely fine for this corn salad.
Red Pepper
Whilst you can use whatever colour pepper you like in this salad, red provides a striking contrast to the corn’s vibrant yellow.
I usually use bell peppers for their crunchy chunky flesh. In the images you can see here though, I had two mini red peppers, so I used those instead.
Spring Onions (Scallions)
I like to use spring onions in these sorts of salads as they have a relatively mild flavour and cut easily into small neat slices. However, a little finely chopped red onion works well as a substitute.
It’s also relatively mild and adds even more colour to the dish.
Spices
I’ve used two classic middle eastern spices in this corn salad recipe. These are sumac and aleppo pepper (pul biber). Sumac gives citrusy earthy tones whilst the chilli flakes are mild, but complex and slightly sweet.
If you prefer something spicier, you can add a little freshly chopped chilli or use hot chilli flakes.
As an alternative, replace the two spices with a little harissa spice mix, zhoug powder or baharat (Lebanese seven spice). They’re all good middle eastern spice blends.
How To Make Corn Salad With A Middle Eastern Vibe
Even though you have to boil the sweetcorn for this corn salad recipe, it still takes less than fifteen minutes to make. If you use tinned sweetcorn, you can probably have it on the table in five.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions, timings and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Prepare Corn
Remove the husks and silk from the corn cob, if necessary. Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil, then insert the whole cob. The water needs to come about half way up the cob. Cover the pan and boil until the kernels are just tender.
Drain the pan and allow the cob to cool enough to handle. Don’t throw the water away, it makes great stock for soups and stews.
Using a sharp knife shave the kernels from the corn cob and add to the bowl along with the olive oil.
If using tinned sweetcorn, omit this step. Drain the corn well, then tip into the bowl at the appropriate step.
Fun Fact
Taking the husks and silks off ears of corn to make them ready for drying or cooking is called shucking in the United States. Back in the day, groups of farmers and the wider community would come together at harvest time for “corn shucking bees”.
Step 2. Prepare The Rest Of The Veg
Whilst the corn is cooking, rinse the spring onion, then cut off the bottom to remove the roots. Slice both white and green parts thinly and place in a small mixing bowl.
Drizzle the lemon juice over the top, so the onions can lightly pickle. The lemon juice helps to remove some of the onion’s pungency and also makes it easier to digest.
Wash the pepper, then slice open and remove any seeds and membranes. Finely dice so that the pieces are slightly larger than the corn. Add to the onion bowl.
Carefully wash and shake dry the parsley. It often catches bits of grit or dirt, especially if homegrown. Chop it finely with a sharp knife then add to the bowl.
Sprinkle in the salt and spices.
Add the corn kernels to the bowl along with the olive oil.
Give everything a good stir.
Step 3. Finish Salad
Chop or crumble the feta into small pieces and add to the bowl.
Stir everything once again to ensure the salad is well mixed.
Taste test at this point. If you feel like it needs more of the spices, salt, lemon juice or olive oil, add a little bit extra until you’re happy with the flavour.
As there’s fresh parsley in the salad, it’s best to serve it soon after making. But it will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to four days. Just give it another stir before serving.
How To Make Vegan Sweetcorn Salad
The only ingredient that isn’t plant based in this recipe is the feta cheese. Simply swap this for a vegan version and you have a vegan corn salad.
What To Eat Corn Salad With
Sweetcorn and feta salad is delicious eaten just as it is for a light meal. The amount given in the recipe makes enough for one. It stores and travels reasonably well, which makes it useful for packed lunches, potlucks and picnics.
However, it mostly makes a great side dish. In which case, the amount give is enough for two people. We enjoyed it with vegan arayes the other day, but it also pairs well with veggie burgers and similar.
Try it stuffed inside a warm pita pocket or use as a topping for tacos and baked potatoes.
The recipe goes well with other classic salads such as tomato salad, cucumber salad, coleslaw and potato salad.
Serve as part of a meze alongside other light middle eastern dishes. It goes particularly well with spanakopita triangles, ful medames, caramelised onion and yoghurt dip and flatbreads.
Other Sweetcorn Recipes You Might Like
- Beans, courgettes & sweetcorn with roasted hazelnuts
- Black bean & corn salad: Mexican style
- Chilli corn chocolate muffins
- Courgette corn soup with vegan pesto
- Smokey sweetcorn pepper fritters
- Vegan smokey ham dip
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this corn and feta salad, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for using sweetcorn?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, tag me @choclette8 so I can see them.
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Choclette x
Corn Feta Salad. PIN IT.
Corn Salad With Feta And A Middle Eastern Vibe
Ingredients
- 1 corn on the cob
- 1 spring onion (scallion)
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ red pepper
- small bunch of parsley finely chopped
- 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt
- ½ tsp ground sumac
- ½ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (pul biber)
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 50 g feta cheese
Instructions
- Remove the husks and silk from the corn, if necessary. Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil, then insert the whole cob. Cover the pan and boil for 5 minutes or until the kernels are tender.1 corn on the cob
- Drain the cob and allow it to cool enough to handle.
- Meanwhile, top and tail the spring onion, then slice thinly and place in a small mixing bowl.1 spring onion (scallion)
- Drizzle the lemon juice over the top, so it can lightly pickle.1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Remove any seeds and membranes from the pepper and chop into small pieces – slightly larger than the corn. Add to the bowl.½ red pepper
- Finely chop the parsley and add to the bowl.small bunch of parsley
- Sprinkle in the salt and spices.1 pinch fine sea or rock salt, ½ tsp ground sumac, ½ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (pul biber)
- Using a sharp knife shave the kernels from the corn cob and add to the bowl along with the olive oil.2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- Give everything a good stir.
- Chop or crumble the feta into small pieces and add to the bowl along with the olive oil.50 g feta cheese
- Stir again to ensure the salad is well mixed.
- Taste test and add more of the spices, salt, lemon juice or olive oil, if and as you see fit.
Have made this corn salad twice now. Sadly no more corn cobs coming my way this seasons n, but can’t wait to make it again next year.
Good to hear you like the recipe. Next year will be here before you know it.