Elote Pasta Salad

This Elote Pasta Salad is a flavorful pasta salad, with inspiration from the classic Mexican street corn. It’s perfect for meal prep, and made high-fiber and high-protein!

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Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe:

• It’s full of flavor, with inspiration from the classic Mexican street corn.
• Another great recipe to use leftover rotisserie chicken.
• This elote pasta salad has everyday nutrition in mind, keeping it high fiber and high protein.
• Lightened up, compared to traditional creamy pasta salads.
• It’s simple to make – you can even used canned chicken and canned or frozen corn!
• Perfect for meal prep – the ingredients hold up fantastically, and the flavors just keep developing over a few days!

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions:

For a full ingredient list with quantities, please check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Pasta – Use what you have or enjoy! For nutrition, I love using higher protein and higher fiber options, like Barilla Protein Plus pasta (used here) and legume-based versions, too.
• Corn – you can use thawed frozen corn, drained canned corn, or even fresh corn on the cob. Fire-roasted adds great flavor, if you can find it!
• Chicken – this pasta salad is designed to be more of a complete meal, with chicken added for more satiting protein.
• Black Beans – drained, canned black beans are such an easy way to add more fiber and plant-based protein to this dish.
• Cotija Cheese – this crumbly cheese adds a delicious saltiness. If you can’t find cotija cheese, try substituting with a finely crumbled feta cheese.
• Greek Yogurt – instead of an entirely mayo-based creamy sauce, ours is lightened with fat-free Greek yogurt for a lower calorie and higher protein boost.
• Light Mayo – to still keep some of the same mouthfeel of a creamy mayo-based sauce, we add a little light mayo.
• Cilantro – fresh cilantro adds delicious flavor to the sauce.
• Seasonings – so much flavor with additions like salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
• Lime – SO tasty and fresh. The flavor pairs perfectly with all the other elote-inspired flavors, and the juice helps create the saucy consistency for the dressing.

How to Make Elote Pasta Salad

For complete instructions, please check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Combine all the dressing ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together until combine. Add all remaining ingredients straight to the sauce in this large bowl.

Gently fold all the ingredients into the sauce, until everything is evenly combined and coated.

Tips and Variations

• Gluten-Free: this elote pasta salad is easily made gluten-free! Simply use your favorite gluten-free pasta, and you’re set!
• Vegetarian: to make this meat-free, simply skip the chicken. You can add another can of beans or some roasted, cubed tofu, if you prefer, but it’s fine without.
• Garnish with more cotija cheese, cilantro, and also Tajin – it enhances the chili lime flavor even more!

Meal Prep & Storage

This elotes pasta salad is perfect for meal prep. The flavors keep marinating together overnight, and all the ingredients hold up super well.

Store the pasta salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days.

I don’t recommend freezing this pasta salad, as it changes the consistency of the sauce too much.

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More Pasta Salad Recipes to Love

• High Protein Pasta Salad
• Dense Bean Pasta Salad
• Chicken Macaroni Pasta Salad
• Balsamic Pasta Salad
• Zucchini Pasta Salad with Chicken Sausage

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