With all the flavors of Mexican Street Corn, but with zucchini slices as the base, this Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini recipe is sure to be your new favorite side dish.
For ideas on what to serve with it, check out all of our recipes.
I love Mexican Street Corn. And I’m obsessed with our Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad. I could honestly bring it to every potluck for the rest of eternity.
But it would become too predictable eventually.
So, to keep the flavors, but change the base, I came up with this Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini. It’s the flavors of Mexican Street Corn, but with zucchini as the base instead of corn.
Who says you can only grill meat on the grill? Not us. If you like the idea of grilling vegetables and side dishes, you’re in luck. We have a bunch of grilled vegetable recipes.
Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini
Affiliate links are included in this post and Drugstore Divas may make a small commission if you use them.
Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini Ingredients:
- 2 large zucchini (about 1 pound)
- 1 teaspoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon, salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon Tajin seasoning
- 2 oz. cotija cheese
- 4 sprigs cilantro
How To Make Mexican Street-Corn Style Grilled Zucchini:
Cut the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices.
Set them out on a cutting board and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt across them. Let them sit for 30 minutes. This will pull out any excess moisture and the zucchini will be firmer after you cook it.
After 30 minutes, blot the excess water with a paper towel.
Put the zucchini in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil on top.
Add the remaining salt and pepper. Stir until the zucchini is evenly coated.
Put them on a propane grill that’s around 400 F, grilling for three to four minutes on each side. If you grill is holding a lower temperature, keep them on the grill longer.
You only want to flip once or you’ll ruin the look of the grill marks.
Put the grilled zucchini on a serving tray.
Squeeze the lime over the top.
Sprinkle the Tajin.
Grate the cotija and sprinkle it evenly on top.
Chop the cilantro and add it on top.
Serve warm or cooled.
Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini: Frequently Asked Questions
If you can’t find cotija cheese in your local grocery store, you can substitute grated parmesan. Grated parmesan has the same texture as grated cotija, except it’s saltier and less moist than cotija.
If you’re grilling all your food for dinner or a party and just don’t have the room to grill it all at once, you can definitely make Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini ahead of time. You can serve this recipe warm or cold.
If you do make it ahead of time, I recommend just grilling the zucchini ahead of time and setting it aside. When you’re ready to serve it, that’s when you want to dress it with the lime juice and other ingredients.
If you dress the zucchini with the lime juice too early, the liquid could seep into the zucchini and make it mushy and soggy by the time you serve it (defeating the point of salting and grilling it in the first place). So definitely make the zucchini ahead of time, but don’t assemble the dish until you’re ready to eat it.
You don’t have to peel the zucchini for this recipe. The zucchini skin is really soft, especially after you cook it, so you don’t need to spend any time peeling the zucchini before cooking. That makes the recipe a lot easier to make.
Plus, if you’re serving this at a party, it looks prettier served with the skin on.
This recipe calls for the zucchini to be grilled, which adds a really nice depth of flavor to the dish.
If you don’t have a grill, or it’s too cold to grill, you can make the zucchini slices in the oven instead.
The recipe won’t exactly be the same, but it’ll be pretty similar.
We highly recommend salting zucchini any time you’re making it. Zucchini has a high water content and when you don’t pull the water out, cooked zucchini gets really mushy. That’s not ideal and no one wants to eat that.
Salting the zucchini and pulling out some of the excess water results in a firmer dish, which is much more palatable.
You want to salt the zucchini for 30 minutes, but the longer you can do it, the better. When I make our Cheesy Zucchini Cornbread Casserole, I actually salt the zucchini and let it sit overnight.
Store any leftover Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini in an airtight container in the fridge for about three days.
We don’t recommend freezing this recipe or any recipe with cooked zucchini. It’ll get really mushy when it comes out of the freezer and will be really soggy.
Put the Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini on a cookie sheet and reheat it in the oven at 350 F. After it reheats, grate a little bit of cotija cheese on top.
You can microwave it as well, but it comes out better if you reheat it in the oven.
More Zucchini Recipes:
If you bought too much zucchini for this recipe and now you have a bunch leftover, don’t worry. We have so many zucchini recipes for you to use the zucchini in.
Some of our favorites are Cheesy Zucchini Cornbread Casserole, Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats, and Grilled Vegetables In Foil Packets.
Other recipes using Tajin:
Tajin is one of my favorite seasonings to add a surprise flavor for your dishes. Some of our favorite recipes using Tajin are Deviled Eggs With Tajin, Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad, and our Mexican Corn And Zucchini Salad.
Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini
With all the flavors of Mexican Street Corn, but with zucchini slices as the base, this Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini recipe is sure to be your new favorite side dish.
Ingredients
- 2 large zucchini (about 1 pound)
- 1 teaspoon, plus 1/2 teaspoon, salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon Tajin seasoning
- 2 oz. cotija cheese
- 4 sprigs cilantro
Instructions
- Cut the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices.
- Set them out on a cutting board and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt across them. Let them sit for 30 minutes. This will pull out any excess moisture and the zucchini will be firmer after you cook it. After 30 minutes, blot the excess water with a paper towel.
- Put the zucchini in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil on top.
- Add the remaining salt and pepper. Stir until the zucchini is evenly coated.
- Put them on a propane grill that’s around 400 F, grilling for three to four minutes on each side. You only want to flip once or you’ll ruin the look of the grill marks.
- Put the grilled zucchini on a serving tray.
- Squeeze the lime over the top.
- Sprinkle the Tajin.
- Grate the cotija cheese and sprinkle it evenly on top.
- Chop the cilantro and add it on top.
Notes
If you grill is holding a lower temperature, keep them on the grill longer.
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 59Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 6mgSodium 411mgCarbohydrates 3gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 2g
Have you tried this Mexican Street Corn-Style Grilled Zucchini? Let us know what you thought in the comments.