This doesn’t mean I don’t love cooking with it. I do. Very much. My summer plan is to work through all 37 of the recipes in our Summer Corn Collection, from breakfast to dinner, and including dessert. (Corn is an underrated dessert ingredient. There’s a reason we make syrup out of it.)
How to eat corn for breakfast
I love corn in a breakfast hash with crispy fried potatoes. The sweetness of the kernels pairs particularly well with the smoky, spicy flavors in our Potato, Poblano and Sweet Corn Hash. We parcook the potatoes in the microwave to speed things up, so the whole thing comes together in half an hour. Top it with a runny-yolked fried egg.
If you prefer bready carbs for breakfast, try these Fresh Corn Pancakes, which are slightly spicy with chipotle chiles and savory with scallions. Use them as the bread for a breakfast sandwich or Benedict, or smear a little crème fraîche on there and layer on some smoked salmon.
How to eat corn for lunch
The lunch options for corn are a little more obvious. Put corn in a quesadilla (with green chiles). Or char it and toss it in an esquites-inspired pasta salad with the brine from pickled jalapeños, cilantro, Mexican crema and salty cotija. I’m also a fan of a big lunch salad, like our panzanella-inspired bread salad. For best flavor and texture, we mix the tomato wedges and onion slices with the vinaigrette and allow them to marinate briefly before tossing in the leafy greens, herb, cheese and toasted bread and corn.
Corn is also the base of some of our favorite soups, like this simple, luxurious bisque. The starch in the cobs gives the soup an incredible, almost creamy body. Remove the kernels, then simmer the cobs in the soup base until they relinquish all of their sweet, grassy flavor. At the very end, stir in a little Greek yogurt, which adds even more creaminess along with a pleasant tang to balance the sweetness of the corn.
And for a 30-minute, chuck-it-all-in-the-pot option, we’ve got our Corn and Coconut Soup with Ginger and Scallions. Loosely inspired by tom kha gai, or chicken and coconut soup, this recipe features the signature flavors of Thai cooking—salty, spicy, sour and sweet—using readily available pantry ingredients, plus 4 cups of corn.
How to eat corn for dinner
Corn is (obviously) an incredible side dish. Grilled corn is hard to beat, especially when paired with a fun compound butter, like one made with harissa or za’atar or hoisin sauce. The secret to best grilled corn is to keep it in the husks at first to steam the kernels, then remove the husks and toss the corn on the hot grates to give it some char.
And the secret to the best creamed corn is to omit the cream and lean on the corn’s natural starches. Milk the spent cobs by scraping them with a knife, then blend the liquid with some of the kernels. You’ll get plenty of creaminess without any of the flavor-muting dairy.
That same starch is what allows corn to serve as a creamy, cream-free pasta sauce, like the one in our Bucatini with Sweet Corn and Scallions, which is creamy, light, and slightly spicy. We take a similar approach in our Campanelle Pasta with Sweet Corn, Tomatoes and Basil, and grate the corn off the cob to create a puree of kernels and starchy corn “milk.” We then simmer the cobs in water to make a corn-infused broth to use as the base of the sauce as well for cooking the pasta. With so few ingredients, it’s a great way to show of the flavors of summer produce.
How to eat corn for dessert
The first time I had corn for dessert was at Morimoto in Philadelphia. It was a sweet corn ice cream and it honestly changed my life, planting the seeds of an eventual career change from organometallic chemistry to food writing. If you’ve never had corn for dessert, you’re in for a treat. Start with this Yelapa-Style Sweet Corn Pie. This unusual pie—developed by food writer Paola Briseño-González—was inspired by the pay de elote (corn pie) sold by the slice in the beach town of Yelapa, Mexico. There, roaming vendors offer slices of pie meant to be eaten on the spot, without the aid of utensils. It’s sweet, custardy and lightly grassy—unlike any pie you’ve ever had.
You can also give corn the soufflé treatment and make these Sweet Corn Puddings, inspired by a recipe from Vivian Howard's “Deep Run Roots” that transforms sweet summer corn into an elegant dessert. They're light and creamy with pops of crisp, sweet corn. Serve with fresh berries and a dusting of powdered sugar—or, if you're a fan of salty-sweet flavor combinations, flaky salt.
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.
And if you're looking for more Milk Street, check out our livestream cooking classes with our favorite chefs, home cooks and friends for global recipes, cooking methods and more.
