Sweet Corn Trail Salad
Raw sweet corn cut off the cob, tossed with beans and lime. No stove, day one.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 48
- protein
- 15 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- No cook
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Day one only
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sweet corn on the cob | 2 ears | young and sweet, not field corn; dent corn is starchy and hard to digest raw |
|---|---|---|
| Canned black beans | 1 cup, drained | a pouch weighs less than a can |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Lime | 1 | or 1 tbsp bottled juice |
| Chili powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 1 tbsp | rehydrates in the lime juice |
Method
- Shuck both ears at home, pull off the silk, and rinse them well. Corn gets sprayed and you rarely know by whom.
- Stand an ear on end in a wide bag and run a knife down the cob to strip the kernels. Do it over the bag or you will spend ten minutes chasing corn.
- Add beans, oil, lime juice, chili powder, salt, and onion flakes to the bag.
- Seal and squeeze until everything is coated. Give it five minutes for the onion to soften, then eat straight from the bag.
Raw sweet corn is the whole point here. Picked young it is soft and milky, closer to a vegetable than a grain, and it needs no heat at all. Field corn is the opposite: dense with starch, unpleasant raw, and rough on your gut. Buy sweet corn in season and use it fast, because the sugars turn to starch within a day or two of picking and the flavor goes flat and grassy.
This is a day-one lunch and nothing else. Cut kernels have no shelf life without a cooler, so eat it the first day out or leave it home. The beans and oil are what turn a side dish into a meal — corn alone is about 86 calories per 100 g and thin on protein, so the beans carry the load and the oil carries the calories. Everything happens in the bag, which means no pot and nothing to wash.
Packing
Cut the corn at home and carry the kernels in a sealed bag; whole cobs are mostly weight you throw away. Premix the chili powder, salt, and onion flakes in a small twist of foil. Oil rides in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Swap the beans for a foil pouch of tuna if you are not keeping it vegan.
- A handful of crushed corn chips stirred in at the last second adds fat and crunch.
- Diced avocado works if you are eating the same day you leave the car.
https://ohmyveggies.com/how-can-you-eat-raw-corn-simple-tips-and-tricks