Corn and hominy salad

Take advantage of corn season with this raw, refreshing, and super flavorful corn and hominy salad.

Take me to the recipe!

This salad was inspired by elote or Mexican street corn. When we lived in NYC, my favorite thing to get at the street fairs that popped up on summer weekends (we called them “socks and sausages”) was the grilled corn with mayo, chili powder, cilantro, and cotija cheese. Spray a little lime over those babies and they were the perfect mix of smoky, salty, creamy, and acidic.

I started developing this recipe last summer and never got around to posting it before corn season was over. This salad uses raw corn, so you really want to get the freshest veg at the peak of its season. You can use frozen or otherwise not-peak corn and give it a quick saute before making the salad, but the fresh, raw stuff is truly the best.

So, there are about 12 million elote salad recipes on the interwebs, so what makes this one different, you ask? Hominy!

Hominy is dried corn kernels that have been soaked in an alkaline solution. Hominy is actually used to make masa, which is the key ingredient in corn tortillas, tamales, and other staples of Mexican cuisine. It has a light corn flavor with a slightly nutty aftertaste. Actually, once you taste hominy, you know that it tastes exactly the way corn tortillas taste.

The hominy adds bulk to the salad that makes it more versatile than a side dish. I’ve added this corn concoction into other meal salads and eaten it on its own with some shredded rotisserie chicken. So, while technically a side dish, this salad can easily transform into the star of the show.

A couple of notes:

• I only use 1/2 of a small garlic clove here because I want to be able to taste all of the ingredients here rather than just raw garlic. If you really like garlic, feel free to use more, but I REALLY REALLY like garlic and 1/2 of a small clove was more than enough for me.

• You can find prepared hominy in cans at basically any grocery store. If you have some dried hominy that you want to rehydrate, find instructions here.

• Cotija cheese is a dry, salty cheese that’s close to a farmer’s cheese. Kind of like if Feta and Parmesan had a baby. If you can’t find it, substitute any dry, nutty, crumbly cheese.

• I’ve only used one Tbsp of mayo in the dressing, but if you’d like a thicker, creamier dressing, feel fee to double or triple up on the mayonnaise.

Corn and hominy salad

Yield: about 5 cups of salad
Time: 10 minutes

4 medium ears of corn, kernels removed (about 3½ cups)
1 15 oz can hominy (about 1½ cups)
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, tightly packed (stems and leaves are fine)
1 Tbsp mayo
1 Tbsp oil of choice (I like avocado, but if you don’t have it on hand, any is fine)
½ tsp kosher salt
Juice of 1 large lime (1 Tbsp)
½ tsp chili powder
½ small garlic clove
Water, as needed to thin out the dressing, added 1 tsp at a time
3 oz cotija cheese

Remove the corn kernels with a knife. I like to use a bundt pan to catch them as they fly around, but any old bowl will do.

Rinse the hominy and add it to the bowl of corn.

In a blender or food processor, add the cilantro, mayo, oil, salt, lime juice, chili powder, and garlic and blend until smooth, adding tiny amounts of water to thin out the sauce as necessary.

Mix the cilantro dressing into the corn and hominy.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt, chili powder or lime juice.

Top with the shredded or grated cojita.

Serve.

Guacamole skewers

One of the most frustrating things about feeding a toddler is that one day's favorite food is the next day's reject. M used to eat guacamole by the spoonful until it was suddenly dead to him. But he still eats the components with no problem. So, I made a skewer out of it and let him pull off pieces and helped him cut them up. And he ate it.

This deconstructed guac is also a way to showcase your seasonal produce. I like hiding sub-par tomatoes and onions in my favorite green gloop, but this way, the still-warm-from-the-sun tomatoes can go right from the farmer's market to a skewer to your table. Feel free to double the sauce recipe if you want some leftovers: This bright, tangy sauce is a perfect topper for chicken, dip for veggies, or sauce for eggs.

The only (and I do mean ONLY) tricky thing about these skewers is timing the avocado right. But isn't that always the way? Too ripe, and the avocado can fall right off of the stick, but using not-ripe-enough avocados is very obvious here because there's no camouflage of mushing and lime juice.

Guacamole skewers

For the sauce
1 bunch cilantro, well-soaked
4 Tbsp avocado oil or other neutral oil
3 Tbsp lime juice
2 generous pinches of salt and more to taste
1 large clove garlic

Roughly remove the stems from the leaves of cilantro (but a few stems are fine). Blend ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or lime juice, as needed.

For the skewers
Red, orange, and yellow cherry tomatoes
1 large avocado (halved, quartered, and then chopped into fours to get 16 pieces)
2 limes (halved and quartered)
1 red onion

Yield: 16 skewers

Falafel waffles

Falafel waffles, guys. They're really really good. Also, hearing a 2 year old say "Falafel waffle" is hysterical. M studies at the Leslie Knope Institute of Waffle Appreciation, so I try to waffle things whenever possible. These are particularly successful. I usually feel pretty 'meh' toward baked falafel because they tend to be, in my opinion, mealy, dry, and little hard to swallow. Appetizing, eh? No so with these guys! I adapted a terrific recipe from Epicurious but added more spices, tahini to help bind and moisten the batter, and chunks of haloumi cheese.

Let's talk about haloumi. I love this cheese so so much. BUT, I have to add the caveat that it's rubbery when cold. Like, feels terrible on your teeth and makes a horrible sound when chewed, rubbery. But, once heated, this cheese is divine. Melted, roasted, grilled, etc, it's great. Grilled is my favorite because it becomes more oozy and gooey, but doesn't seem to fully melt. Anyway, this cheese is salty and a little briny, but very mild and in the waffles creates pockets of salty goodness.

The batter here is not your typical waffle batter and when I first made these, I thought for sure that they'd be a flop. Once combined, these ingredients make sort of a grainy, sandy, thick-ish mixture that bakes into a totally normal waffle. A couple more notes: I only use dried chickpeas that I've soaked overnight in these. I think that the canned ones fall apart too easily. I also used garbanzo flour to make these gluten-free, but you can use any type of flour you have on hand. Be sure to spray your waffle maker with some olive oil spray between each batch as these guys can stick.

Falafel Waffles

Roughly adapted from Cookie + Kate

2 cups chick peas
1.5 Tbsp (just grab a handful) fresh cilantro
1.5 Tbsp (ditto above) fresh parsley
½ large onion
1 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
½ tsp coriander
2 Tbsp tahini
6 Tbsp garbanzo flour
8 oz haloumi cheese (1 medium-sized block)

Place all of the ingredients up to the cheese into a food processor and pulse until well combined and looking like medium grains of sand. Chunk up the cheese with your hands and mix into the falafel batter. Form into palm-sized balls (about 1/3 cup each) and cook in a well-greased waffle maker according to the appliance’s directions.

Yield: 12 small waffles

Romesco sauce

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up any meal—Whole 30 or otherwise. #meandthemoose #sauce #romescosauce #redpeppersauce #whole30sauces #easyrecipes

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up virtually any meal.

Take me to the sauce!

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up any meal—Whole 30 or otherwise. #meandthemoose #sauce #romescosauce #redpeppersauce #whole30sauces #easyrecipes

I truly believe that there is nothing better or more versatile than a great sauce. You can put it on eggs, roasted veggies, any kind of protein, on toast (avocado or otherwise), use it as a dip, stir it into soup, or combine it with hot pasta and a little pasta water for an instant sauce.

I’m allergic to meal prepping, but sauce prepping is something I can get behind. It can uplift any boring chicken or pasta that you might whip up at the last minute. And truly, it takes minutes to prep this bad boy, so you’re not spending an entire Sunday filling the fridge.

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up any meal—Whole 30 or otherwise. #meandthemoose #sauce #romescosauce #redpeppersauce #whole30sauces #easyrecipes

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up any meal—Whole 30 or otherwise. #meandthemoose #sauce #romescosauce #redpeppersauce #whole30sauces #easyrecipes

This is basically Bon Appetit's recipe with a few small tweaks. I never have sherry vinegar, so I sub in red wine vinegar. I also left out the parsley because I don't like it.

Romesco is a quick and easy roasted red pepper and tomato sauce that has a little smokiness thanks to paprika and a tiny kick from cayenne. It’s also the easiest way to spice up any meal—Whole 30 or otherwise. #meandthemoose #sauce #romescosauce #redpeppersauce #whole30sauces #easyrecipes

Romesco

Yield: 1.5 cups
Time: about 8 minutes

1/2 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
3/4 cup fire roasted red peppers
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp tomato paste
2-3 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
6 Tbsp olive oil
1/2-1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/8 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 350. Spread the almonds out over a piece of parchment paper or tin foil. Toast until lightly golden brown.

Add the peppers, garlic, toasted almonds, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, paprika, and cayenne to a blender or food processor and pulse a few times. Add the oil in a stream (or dump it all in) and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.