Side dishes · Vegetable sides

Esquites

Name: Esquites
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 4 cobs' worth sweet corn, kernels cut off; 2 tsp canola oil; 2 tbsp mayonnaise; 2 tbsp whole-milk Greek yogurt; juice of 1 lime; 1 1/2 tsp chili powder; 1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled; a handful fresh cilantro, chopped; 1/4 tsp salt

Mexican street corn off the cob: kernels charred in a dry pan, dressed warm with lime, mayo-and-yogurt crema and salty cheese. The cup-version of elote, and the best argument that corn is a vegetable with dessert energy.

Time: 20 min (10 prep + 10 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 176 kcal
Protein: 6 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

4 cobs' worth sweet corn, kernels cut off600 g
2 tsp canola oil10 g

Dressing

2 tbsp mayonnaise30 g
2 tbsp whole-milk Greek yogurt30 g
juice of 1 lime30 g
1 1/2 tsp chili powder3 g

1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled60 g
a handful fresh cilantro, chopped8 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Get a wide pan very hot with the oil and char the corn in a single layer, 6–8 minutes, stirring only every couple of minutes — the blackened spots are the flavour, and constant stirring prevents them.
Stir the mayonnaise, yogurt, lime, chilli powder and salt together in the serving bowl.
Tip the hot corn straight into the dressing and toss — warm corn drinks it in a way cold corn won't.
Fold in most of the cotija and cilantro, and finish with the rest on top. Eat warm, with a spoon.

Why this score

easy to overeat

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

13% of kcal

74% water

16 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

11%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1058 kcal goes into the pot, 773 g of ingredients comes out as ~745 g of food → 142 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 142
Protein: (13%); 5 g
Fat: (51%); 8 g
Carbohydrates: (36%); 13 g
of which sugar: 6 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 274 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.