Mexican Macaroni Salad

It’s so, so, so hot outside.

It’s sticky hot. Knees-sweating hot. I-can’t-stand-5-minutes-out-here hot.

When it’s this incessantly hot outside, I don’t feel like eating—much less cooking. Sandwiches, salads, and cold chicken are my best friends in the summertime.

I decided to try my hand at grilling for the first time ever yesterday (I’ll have much more on that tomorrow) and needed a side to go along with my meal. I ran across this interesting pasta salad recipe a while back, so I tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes (less tomatoes and wayyyy more heat!) and served it alongside my grilled chicken breasts.

One word: fantastic.

This pasta salad is so weirdly different, but soooo good! Try it with your favorite salsa and alongside some tacos. It’s also a great side dish if you’re sick of making refried beans or spanish rice on Mexican night.

Mexican Macaroni Salad

• 1 lb. elbow macaroni
• 1 can sweet kernel yellow corn, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 jalapenos, diced
• 2 roma tomatoes, diced
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• salt and pepper
• fresh cilantro, for garnish

1. Cook macaroni according to package directions (7 minutes in boiling water). Drain and rinse under cold water.
2. Make sure veggies are chopped into small bite-sized pieces. Drain corn and black beans well and rinse black beans under cold water.
3. Meanwhile, make the sauce: combine the salsa, sour cream, mayonnaise, cumin, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl. Stir to combine well.
4. In a large bowl, mix cooled, cooked macaroni with the corn, black beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, green onions, and red onion. Add dressing and stir well to combine.
5. Refrigerate macaroni salad until ready to serve. Top each portion with chopped fresh cilantro.

I was going to make this pasta salad with fresh corn, but for the life of me, I could not find ANY fresh corn in the produce aisle at the grocery store! I searched everywhere for it, and there were NO fresh corn cobs to be found. Are they out of season? Have you seen any fresh corn lately?

Anyway, canned corn worked just fine in this recipe. I love biting into sweet little morsels of corn, followed by biting into the tangy onion and hearty beans. This recipe makes a metric ton of pasta salad, so make sure you have many mouths to feed when you make this!