Inexpensive black bean and corn salad that will be a summer favorite in your home! Just grilled corn, jalapeño, black beans, tomatoes, red onion, salt, and lime juice. Serve with chips or on top of chicken, fish, or steak.

Seasonal cheap summer favorite

Every single summer as soon as tomatoes are ripe and I start seeing corn on the cob on sale for super cheap, I make a batch of this black bean and corn salad. It's one of our favorite summer treats!

There are versions of this black bean and corn salad floating all around the internet. I have been making variations of this for many years, and it is always a hit. There are many ingredients that you can add to this, but I've tried to keep it as inexpensive as possible, while still keeping a delicious taste.

Black beans, summer corn, tomato, red onion, jalapeño, salt, and limes are all super cheap. Feel free to add cilantro, avocado, peppers, or anything else that sounds good, but if you are wanting inexpensive, stick to my list.

Do I have to grill the corn?

Grilling the corn does add a delicious smoky flavor to the salad, and I encourage you to do the extra step, but you don't have to. You could just boil the corn on the cob or use thawed frozen corn.

I most often make this dip when we have leftover corn on the cob from a holiday gathering. When we grill corn, we like to make extra just so we can make this with the leftovers. So yummy!

How to serve black bean and corn salad

This salad can be served in many different ways:

on its own with a fork
as a dip for tortilla chips or veggies
as a topping for tacos
on top of rice for burrito bowls
on top of chicken

Give it a try. You'll be making it all summer!

Print Pin

Black bean and corn salad

An inexpensive version of black bean and corn salad. A summer favorite!

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings 6

Ingredients

3 ears of corn
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
2 large tomatoes diced
3 T red onion minced
1 jalapeño ribs and seeds removed and diced
juice of one lime you can sub another acid like lemon juice or red wine vinegar if you don't have lime juice
½ tsp salt or more to taste

Instructions

1. Soak corn cob in husks for about 15 minutes.
2. Grill corn on medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning over every 3-4 minutes.
3. Remove husks, and place back on grill to char some of the pieces.
4. Cut off corn from the cob and place in bowl.
5. Add remainder of ingredients, stir and taste. Adjust salt if needed.
Set aside for at least 15 minutes before serving so the salt can pull out the juices from the tomatoes and make the salad extra juicy.

Notes

You may also use 1 ½ cups of frozen corn, thawed. Just skip the grilling steps.

I often make this when I have leftover corn on the cob to use up leftovers instead of grilling corn just for this recipe.