Quick and easy sweetcorn salsa

This sweetcorn salsa has a balanced and citrusy taste and is the perfect quick and easy healthy salad, perfect for lunch or as a filling for a Mexican tortilla or taco. Ready in just 15 minutes.

Working from home for prolonged periods of time has really meant that I have the time to prepare a decent lunch. Usually, I would just grab a takeaway from a local place near my office. Easy, yes but not exactly healthy. But now I have the opportunity to rustle up a healthy but quick lunch and this sweetcorn salsa is perfect. A great mix of textures, spicy with a kick of acidity from the lime. The thing I love most about it though is that it is the perfect base for other ingredients. I love adding in some diced avocado and varying the vegetables added. My version uses corn, spring onions, red onions plus herbs, chilli and lime for a lunch dish that is utterly delicious but also good for you.

Hey, what do I need to make this?

So for my version of sweetcorn salsa, these are what you’ll need:

Sweetcorn – either use frozen or slice the kernels off some corn on the cob. Tinned would also work.

Red chilli – you can use whatever chilli you have to hand. Just watch how much you add, I used I medium sized red chilli but vary the amount if you like it less spicy. Bear in mind that different types of chilli have different strengths. The chilli I use is medium strength, I’d avoid chillis like birds eye’s though as they are super hot.

Green onions (spring onion) – these can be omitted if you don’t have any in your fridge but I like the taste these provide.

Red onion – you can swap these for ordinary white or brown onion if you’d prefer. I find red onions the best for salsas though.

Cilantro (coriander) – this herb is perfect for salsa, but if you are one of the many that hates cilantro – some people find it tastes like soap – then just omit or replace with parsley.

Fresh lime – purists would say you can’t use bottled lime juice but I disagree, if that is what you have available feel free to use it.

Hey, how do I make this sweetcorn salsa?

First up, let’s prepare our sweetcorn. I use frozen for ease of use – so I start off by boiling a saucepan of salted water. When boiling I add the sweetcorn and boil for 5-10 minutes. As sweetcorn kernels are so small they don’t take long to cook. Of course, if you’re using fresh kernels in your sweetcorn salsa, add another 5 minutes to your cooking time. When done, drain and set aside.

Take your cherry tomatoes and dice into small pieces. Slice your green onions into thin slices about 1/2 thick. Then, into a large bowl, add your diced red onion, tomatoes, green onions, chilli and cilantro.

Add your sweetcorn to the other ingredients. Squeeze the limes over the bowl to release the juice onto your salsa, and add seasoning to taste and give it a good mix. You can use clean hands to do this or if you’d prefer a salad spoon. That’s all there is to it. Didn’t I tell you it was easy!

Tips

• How do I scale the recipe? This recipe already produces a large volume of sweetcorn salsa but of course if you’re producing it for a get together where you need more, just multiply the quantities so double up or even triple it.
•  Can it be made in advance? Yes, you can. I’d advise storing it minus the lime juice and then just adding it at the end.
•  How is it stored? For how long? This will keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
•  How would you intensify, or mellow out some of the flavors? This version of sweetcorn salsa has a fair amount of chilli and a strong citrus taste. If you’re not a fan of overly citrusy tastes just halve the amount of lime juice and if you don’t like heat, either omit the chilli or reduce the amount.
•  What kind of equipment is needed? Just a saucepan, sharp knife and a large bowl
•  What are the best dishes for this recipe? This goes perfectly inside a taco or tortilla wrap. It is also fantastic with a good bowl of chilli.
• What other ingredients can be added? The sky’s the limit. But some great additions are: avocado, radish, jalapeños, cucumber, celery.