Corn Bhel: Easy Corn Chaat Salad

Try our Corn Bhel, a delightful chaat made with corn, tomatoes, and onions, garnished with tangy chutneys. Ideal as a simple salad or appetizer!

Summertime is here, and we love any recipe that doesn’t require us to turn on our stove or oven. It is the best time to use up all the fresh ingredients, flavor it with fresh herbs and spices!

This corn bhel recipe is the perfect side salad or appetizer for summer months.

Why we love Corn Bhel?

• Perfect side dish for summer BBQs and parties
• It’s easy – made with fresh or frozen corn
• Make it your own – add your own twist with fresh vegetables or your favorite chutneys!

If you’re looking for more chaat recipes, here are some of our favorites:

• Fruit Chaat – Pakistani Fruit Salad
• Dahi Vada Papdi Chaat
• Chana Chaat: Pakistani Chickpea Salad
• Aloo Chaat

Ingredients for easy Corn Bhel

• Corn – fresh or frozen corn can be used for this recipe.
• Tomato and Onion – these complement the corn in this recipe. We recommend using crunchy red/purple onion for this recipe.
• Chutney(s) – we used a simple green chutney. Any of your favorites like imli (tamarind) chutney or even a red chutney would be a great addition to this dish!
• Cilantro – this fresh herb really ties the dish together.
• Chaat Masala – Chaat masala is a special spice blend used in Chaat (appetizer) dishes like this. You can make a homemade version or a store-bought mix.
• Red Chili or flakes – for a bit of spice. You can omit this if you prefer.
• Chickpea sev or Alu bhujia – for just a bit of crunch.

How to make Corn Bhel?

Our chaat recipes have a simple formula: a base, fresh flavors, tangy sauces, then finished with some crunch!

Prepare the base

The base for this chaat recipe is corn. If in season, you can use freshly cooked corn. But frozen or canned corn will work just as well for this recipe.

If using frozen corn, boil for a few minutes. You can also add a pinch of turmeric to the corn (optional) at this point.

Add the fresh flavors and spices:

For this corn bhel recipe, we added some tomatoes and onions for freshness. We recommend red/purple onions for the best crunch.

Then layer on the spices: there’s chaat masala, and some red chili for just a little spice.

Add the chutney/sauces:

No chaat dish, and especially this corn bhel is complete without chutney or sauce!

You can use any chutney that you have on hand, or a combination of them for this recipe.

Some of our favorites chutneys for this recipe are:

• Green Imli Chutney: Spicy, Sweet Tangy Sauce
• Green Chutney
• Red Chutney – made with chili, garlic, and spices.

Finish with some crunch:

Top with something crunchy right before you’re ready to serve this corn chaat salad. We like to top it with some alu bhujia, or chickpea sev (fried chickpea vermicelli) for this particular chaat.

You could even try a plain, unsweetened cereal like Cornflakes and Rice Krispies!

How to Serve Corn Bhel Chaat?

This corn bhel is best served immediately.

Leave some extra chili powder, chaat masala, and chutneys on the side so your guests can adjust to their preferences.

This corn bhel is the perfect snack, or it can be a side salad to a summer meal with BBQ chicken or kababs and other sides like Laal Aloo.

Some of our favorite main dishes with this corn bhel are:

• Butter Chicken Paratha Roll
• Seekh Kabab – Pakistani Ground Beef Skewers
• Tandoori Chicken: Pakistani BBQ Chicken
• Chicken Seekh Kabab: Soft and Juicy Kababs

If you give this corn bhel a try, we’d love to see it!  Tag us on Instagram @thespicemess