Raw Corn Salad with Jalapeño & Basil

This raw corn salad is my love letter to late summer. It builds on so many layers of flavor, and perfectly combines the best produce that late summer has to offer with the comforting flavors of fall. It’s like a wave goodbye to one season and an introduction to another. I can’t get enough of it.

This recipe is also the perfect lesson in how to build flavors. Even with the simplicity of a fresh raw sweet corn salad, you can see how flavors connect, build ladders on top of each other and turn into a connected, comforting dish. I’ll explain more with all the details below!

Ingredients for this raw sweet corn salad

The ingredients in this summer corn salad are simple, and that’s what makes this recipe beautiful. This is all you need:

• 1/3 cup raw walnuts
• 1 large ear of corn, shucked
• 2 small jalapeños
• 3-4 small scallion stalks
• 1/2 cup large basil leaves, unpacked, about one small handful
• 1 lemon for juicing
• 2-3 tbsp high-quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ounce fresh parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

How to build flavors in this summer corn salad

This salad contains what I like to call “flavor ladders.”

When I first started developing recipes, I thought of building flavors as making a ladder, and each ingredient is a rung on that ladder, and every rung must connect. There are some ingredients that everyone knows go together – for example: corn + jalapeños. So these two ingredients are rungs of the ladder that are next to each other. They connect.

Then after that, corn connects to toasted walnuts, which in turn connect to parmesan, which in turn connects to basil.

You wouldn’t normally think of jalapeño and basil together, but after building the ladder, it just works.

I encourage you to think of flavors in this way and it will change your life when it comes to cooking!

How to chiffonade fresh basil

A chiffonade cut is the best way to finely cut leafy vegetables. It is traditional in french cooking and many other cuisines.

My preferred way to chiffonade basil is to roll it up tightly, until it looks like a cigar, and then take a sharp knife and run it down the basil side-wise. This will result in long, delicate, thin strands of basil that is perfect for this salad.

How to bring this fresh raw corn salad recipe together

The recipe itself for this summer corn salad is relatively simple. It relies on a lot of intuition and trust in your taste buds. Adjust the salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice to your palate. And adjust the parmesan as well. Here are the steps for how to cut, slice and assemble, but really you have the reigns from start to finish.

The step-by-step for this recipe:

1. Chop the walnuts roughly and toast them in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Do this by working them around the pan for 2-3 minutes. You can also spread them on a baking sheet and toast at 425F for 3-4 minutes. Remove them from the heat when they are golden brown and fragrant.
2. Use a knife to remove the corn kernels from the cob. Set them to the side.
3. Finely dice the jalapeños, removing the seeds. And slice the scallions thinly, stopping when the pieces are mostly white.
4. Roll up each individual basil leaf and chiffonade the herbs.
5. In a large bowl, toss together the corn, jalapeño, scallions, basil and walnuts. Toss together.
6. Add a generous squeeze of lemon juice and a large glug of olive oil. Add pepper to taste and toss the salad again.
7. Use a microplane to finely grate the parmesan on top of the salad. Toss and add salt and pepper to taste again.
8. If you have any remaining, top with more parmesan cheese and serve!

Looking for other salad recipes?

Here are a few of my most recent favorites!

And that’s it for this raw corn salad recipe!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3