OKCVEGGIE | Vegetarian Recipes

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Elotes Pizza with Avocado Crema

Mexican grilled corn, or elotes, is perhaps the best way (in my opinion) to enjoy corn. You coat the corn with salt, chili powder, butter, queso fresco, lime juice and mayonnaise and roast it to perfection over an open grill. I’m not even the biggest fan of corn, but elotes is truly glorious.

The Jones Assembly, a local restaurant in OKC, has an absolutely fabulous Elotes Pizza, and I’ve been wanting to make something similar at home for ages. This is a pared-down version of their pizza, but I seriously love how it turned out.

We frequently use naan for pizza crust because it’s personal sized and isn’t crazy high in calories (use the search bar at the top of this page to find more naan pizza recipes). The “sauce” for this pizza is avocado crema, a simple mixture of mashed avocado, sour cream, a bit of mayo, lime juice, cilantro and salt. Top it with grilled corn, red onions, pepper jack cheese and queso fresco, and you’re in business!

We served these Elotes Pizzas with spicy roasted broccoli — the pizzas are pretty mild, so if you want them to have more of a kick, I would suggest mixing some chili powder or cayenne in with the avocado crema, or adding jalapeños or serrano peppers as a topping. Next time, I think I might make a separate crema with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to drizzle over the top!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 avocado

  • 1/2 c. light sour cream

  • 2 T. light mayonnaise

  • Juice from one small lime

  • 1/4 c. cilantro, minced

  • Pinch of salt

  • Pizza crust of choice (we used the frozen Garlic Naan from Trader Joe’s)

  • 2-3 ears of corn

  • 1 red onion, diced

  • Pepper jack cheese, shredded

  • Queso fresco, crumbled

STEPS

1) Remove the avocado from its skin and add to a bowl along with the sour cream, mayonnaise, lime juice, cilantro and salt. Mash well with a fork to combine.

2) Shuck the corn and spray with olive oil cooking spray. Turn your grill on high heat and place the corn onto the grill. You want the corn to get fully browned, so flip it every couple of minutes and close the lid of the grill after flipping. Allow to cool for a few minutes before using a knife to remove the kernels from the corn.

3) Cook your pizza crust according to package directions. If you’re using naan like we did, you’ll preheat the oven to 400 degrees. The naan needs much longer to cook to get crispy than the package directions suggest, so just check on it periodically (about 15 minutes might do it).

4) After the naan (or crust) is cooked, spread it with a layer of the avocado crema. Sprinkle with corn, pepper jack cheese, red onions, queso fresco and more corn. Cook until the cheese is melted, then add to the broiler until golden brown. Allow to cool for a couple minutes before slicing, serving and enjoying!