Mexican Cucumber Salad with Corn and Elote Dressing
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This simple cucumber salad is inspired by our favorite street food, Mexican street corn. With crunchy cucumbers, sweet corn, cotija cheese, and a creamy dressing, it’s an easy side dish with a bit of kick to complement any Mexican-style meal. ¡Buen provecho!
If you’re making a salad to serve alongside a Mexican-inspired meal, this Mexican cucumber salad is the one to choose. It’s fresh, crunchy, customizable, and incredibly easy to throw together. Crisp cucumbers and sweet corn form the base, while a creamy, lime-forward dressing ties everything together with just the right balance of richness and zip.
The recipe is inspired by elote, or Mexican street corn, and uses many of the same flavors I love in that classic snack. Cotija cheese adds saltiness, lime brings brightness, and a touch of chili gives it a gentle kick. It works beautifully as a side for grilled steak or fish, but it’s just as good spooned into tacos or served alongside carnitas or any favorite protein. All the bold, creamy, street-corn flavor—without the mess.
How to serve this elote-inspired cucumber salad
It’s hard to wrong with this salad as it goes well with so many Tex-Mex mains. Try it next to my grilled steak tacos or blackened rockfish tacos. It also makes a great side to cilantro lime chicken.
Mexican Cucumber Salad with Corn and Elote Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (can be light)
- 2 tablespoons cotija cheese (see notes)
- 1 lime (zest and juice)
- ½ teaspoon elote seasoning (or chili powder)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 6 mini cucumbers (sliced thin)
- 1 cup frozen corn (thawed)
- ¼ cup cilantro (minced)
- 2 tablespoons minced red onion
- Sea salt (to taste)
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix the sour cream, mayonnaise, cheese, lime zest and juice, elote seasoning (or chili powder), and garlic.2 tablespoons sour cream, 2 tablespoons cotija cheese, 1 lime, ½ teaspoon elote seasoning, 1 clove garlic, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Add the cucumbers, thawed corn, cilantro, and minced red onion to the bowl. Mix the salad ingredients until everything is well combined. Season to taste with salt.6 mini cucumbers, 1 cup frozen corn, ¼ cup cilantro, 2 tablespoons minced red onion, Sea salt
Last step:
- After you make this recipe, take a picture with your phone and share it in the comments section below. I love seeing it when you make my recipes!
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
This is a recipe that never fails us!
That’s so wonderful to hear! I love that it’s become such a reliable favorite for you—those are the best kinds of recipes!
Many compliments and request for recipe added more spices use grilled corn & garden grown cuc’s
Added Nastartium flowers for added interest & taste
That sounds absolutely amazing! 🌽🌸 Grilled corn, garden cucumbers, and nasturtium flowers—what a beautiful and flavorful twist! I’m so glad it was such a hit!
Served with Berbere meatballs. Used fresh corn, doubled the garlic and added a pinch of both coriander and cumin; otherwise stuck to recipe – although next time I’ll use plain yogurt in lieu of the mayo & sour cream.
That sounds wonderful!
Served with with tacos for dinner last night and it was the perfect side. We don’t normally have salad with tacos so wasn’t sure if they would go together but it was the perfect side. Thank you!
I love this salad with tacos too!!
Wasn’t much to write home about. It seemed a little flat by following the recipe directly. I’d probably add jalapeño if I ever made it again
Jalapeño would be a great addition!
Im out of frozen corn and fresh corn right now is not good. Would tin corn work? Not creamed corn, but just tinned kernels.
Hi Glen! As long as you drain the liquid from the can then it should work just fine!
Simple and scrumptious
So delicious! I ended up eating the whole bowl myself. Only thing I added was thinly sliced jalapeño.
I first want to say that I am not trying to one up Krista. My fiance and I absolutely love this meal!! The only thing I would change would be to use elote seasoning with or in place of the chili powder. Trader Joe’s makes a great premade blend and it add such a delish little touch. Thanks for the recipe!
Wow, this will be one of my staple side dishes from now on!! So delicious and everyone loved it!
One word: YUM
Super good, didn’t add the salt and it was still MARVELOUS!
I love your recipes and have repeated several of them. This salad looks perfect to me, but I couldn’t get the “print” function to work and tried several alternatives to trick it into conforming, but without luck. If others had the same experience, could you check the setting and let us know so we can print it? Thanks!
It may be that you have popups blocked on your computer. The recipe opens in a new tab and if you have them blocked, it may be preventing it from opening. Here’s the direct link to the recipe print page: https://www.theendlessmeal.com/wprm_print/78544
Hi Kristen! Thank you for the recipe! I will be adding this to my 4th of July bbq spread!
Just a note, i think the cheese is cotija cheese, not cojita. It is an amazing crumbly and creamy cheese that is one of my favs!😍
Thank you for flagging that mistake! I really hope you like the recipe as much as we do!
This recipe looks wonderful. I am hosting a mini family reunion this weekend and Mexican is one of the meals. How far in advance do you think I could make the salad? Thank you
Because the salt will draw out liquid from the cucumbers, I wouldn’t make it more than an hour or so in advance. But you can make the dressing days ahead and keep the cucumber, corn and red onion in a covered serving bowl in your fridge then mix in the dressing before serving it.
Made this wonderful salad with one small twist. I grilled a couple ears of corn. I let them cool a bit then sliced off the kernels and added them to the salad. Took the whole dish to another level. 👨🏻🍳😋
Such a great idea!