This Hot Honey Grilled Corn Salad is the ultimate summer pasta salad to serve at a backyard barbecue. Combine fresh grilled sweet corn, pasta and veggies in a sweet and savory hot honey sauce.
Make-ahead
Minimal prep
You’ll Learn: How to balance sweet and savory for a balanced pasta salad
Worth It: It builds a stash for stress-free meals for later
Bonus: Swap pasta types and greens for flexibility
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Perfect for summer – This pasta salad is the perfect summer side dish. It contains some of my favorite summer produce like sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil.
- Combines sweet and savory– the sweet and savory combo is popular for a reason! Everyone is loving hot honey lately and this corn pasta salad highlights the ways that hot honey can truly elevate any savory dish.
- Prep ahead of time – make this hearty pasta salad ahead of time for meal prep or a party! Just save the arugula on the side and toss it with the salad just before serving for the ideal taste and texture.
Serving suggestions
This sweet and savory pasta salad is the perfect thing to serve at a backyard barbecue with all of your grilling favorites. It pairs perfectly with this lemon basil chicken thigh recipe because both highlight summer flavors.
It also pairs nicely with grilled balsamic chicken and marinated grilled flank steak. If I want to add more veggies to the meal I make a side salad like this peach burrata salad.
What is hot honey?
Hot honey or sometimes called spicy honey is a sweet condiment made by infusing standard honey with chili peppers. It is widely available at most grocery stores, but if you don’t have access to spicy honey you can make your own by mixing honey with things like hot sauce, sriracha or crushed red pepper flakes.
Ingredients and Ingredient Substitutions
- Pasta – any shape of dried pasta will work for this recipe. I like to use orecchiette because the shape tends to hold the corn well. If you want to make this recipe gluten free, just use a gluten free pasta.
- Fresh sweet corn – grill ears of fresh sweet corn on the grill so that they get a nice char on the outside. If you do not have access to full ears of corn, use canned or frozen fire roasted sweet corn.
- Cherry tomatoes – use any kind of tomatoes cut into bite sized pieces. I personally find that sweet cherry or grape tomatoes are the perfect thing for this recipe.
- Arugula – fresh arugula has the perfect bite to balance the sweetness of the hot honey. If you don’t like arugula you wan use fresh chopped baby spinach or baby kale.
- Fresh basil – cut fresh basil leaves into ribbons to add an herbaceous balance to the dish.
- Hot honey – this spicy sweet condiment is the star of the dish. It pairs wonderfully with the grilled corn, aldente pasta and tender tomatoes.
- Olive oil and white balsamic vinegar – oil and vinegar get mixed with the honey to make the sweet and savory sauce that is essential to the flavor of this dish.
- Salt and pepper – season this corn pasta salad simply with salt and pepper. Add more or less depending on your personal preferences
How to make
Step 1: Grill corn and Cook pasta
To begin, preheat grill or grill pan over high heat. Place shucked and cleaned ears of corn directly on grill grates and reduce heat to med-high.
Cook corn for about 8 minutes rotating frequently – you want the corn to look charred on the outside.
While the corn cools, boil pasta in heavily salted water according to package instructions. Drain water and rinse cooked pasta in cold water to cool. Place in a large mixing bowl
Step 2: toss it all together in hot honey sauce
Then, cut corn kernels off the ears of corn and place corn in the mixing bowl along with the quartered cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.
Whisk hot honey, olive oil and vinegar together. Pour mixture into bowl and toss.
Finally, add arugula to bowl and toss again. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Serve immediately. If you would like to chill before serving, save arugula on the side, chill and then toss with arugula chilled.
Make ahead instructions and Storage
If you want to make this grilled corn pasta salad ahead of time, follow all instructions as written, but don’t mix the arugula in until just before serving. If you mix it it too far ahead it will be very wilted when serving.
Serve leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. If making a large batch for meal prep, store arugula and rest of pasta salad separately.
Check out these Other Summer Pasta Salad Recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Hot Honey Grilled Corn Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 3 ears fresh corn
- 8 oz pasta I like orrechiete
- 8 oz cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
- 2. oz arugula
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves cut into ribbons
- 2 tbsp hot honey
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat grill or grill pan over high heat. Place shucked and cleaned ears of corn directly on grill grates and reduce heat to med-high. Cook corn for about 8 minutes rotating frequently – you want the corn to look charred on the outside.
- While the corn cools, boil pasta in heavily salted water according to package instructions. Drain water and rinse cooked pasta in cold water to cool. Place in a large mixing bowl
- Cut corn kernels off the ears of corn and place corn in the mixing bowl along with the quartered cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.
- Whisk hot honey, olive oil and vinegar together. Pour mixture into bowl and toss.
- Add arugula to bowl and toss again. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve immediately. If you would like to chill before serving, save arugula on the side, chill and then toss with arugula chilled.
Recipe Notes
- Use gluten free pasta to easily make this pasta salad recipe gluten free
- If you don’t have access to spicy honey you can make your own by mixing honey with things like hot sauce, sriracha or crushed red pepper flakes.
- Save time and use fire roasted frozen or canned corn in place of the fresh corn ears
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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