Vegan Mexican Street Corn (Elotes)

When summer hits, corn on the cob is everything. I love roasted corn from the BBQ. It’s so deliciously sweet and simple. I wanted to try something different this summer as I have been really into Mexican flavours and spices. While searching the internet for inspiration, I found an amazing recipe for Mexican street corn, also called “elotes,” and wanted to try veganizing it. 

Basically, imagine the sweet taste from the roasted corn blended with zesty cajun spice, smoked paprika, and the freshness of cilantro, all wrapped up in a tangy cream sauce. Are you on board yet?

The famous Mexican “crema” is traditionally made with sour cream and mayonnaise. It’s incredibly heavy and not so good for the heart with all of that saturated fat from the dairy products. I wanted to keep the crema idea for the corn but replace it with something a bit lighter. Instead of sour cream, I opted for Vegenaise – which is lower in fat but just as creamy.

Traditionally, elotes are topped with cheese, so a vegan cheese substitute is great here. Or, you can try adding nutritional yeast, which I use as a parmesan cheese substitute since it’s naturally cheesy in flavour. Nutritional yeast (or “nooch” as the hip vegans like to call it) is true to its name: a nutrient-powerhouse, nooch is astonishingly high in B-12 and other B vitamins, including thiamine, folate, B-6 and niacin. In fact, just half a tablespoon can help you meet your daily B vitamin requirement. Nutritional yeast is also a complete protein, meaning that among the 18 amino acids it contains, nine are essential ones that your body cannot produce. Nooch also provides the compounds beta-1,3 glucan, trehalose, mannan and glutathione, which are associated with enhanced immunity, reduced cholesterol levels and cancer prevention. You get a significant dose of the minerals iron, selenium and zinc when you consume nutritional yeast as well and one serving of nutritional yeast provides about four grams of fiber (Source: Livestrong).

Vegan Mexican Street Corn

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Serves: 1 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

For the corn:

2 corn on the cobs, husked
2 tbsp. avocado oil (for frying)
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. salt or Herbamare
1-2 tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)

For the sauce:

2 tbsp. vegan mayo
1/2 tsp. cajun spice
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 a lime
1/4 cup of cilantro, finely chopped

Vegan Mexican Street Corn (Elotes) was last modified: September 16th, 2017 by themindfulstrawberry

Instructions

1. Heat a large skillet with oil. Brush corn evenly with avocado oil, garlic powder, and salt.
2. Fry corn on medium-high heat, turning every few minutes, until you can see grill marks on each side. Cook the entire corn for 8-10 min.
3. While corn is cooking, prepare crema by mixing sauce ingredients in a bowl.
4. When corn is ready, place on a plate to cool.
5. Drizzle crema all over the corn, and top with fresh cilantro and nutritional yeast.

Vegan Mexican Street Corn (Elotes) was last modified: September 16th, 2017 by themindfulstrawberry