I don't write a lot about vegetables; I'm clearly more of a sweets person. However, this bright, flavorful Corn and Green Bean Salad with Lime is too good not to share with you!
We love it. It's a warm, all-vegetable salad, made mainly from frozen vegetables, cooked over medium- to medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet. It has a bright lime-soy dressing drizzled over it, which really makes the dish.
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Ingredients
For Christmas 2017, I received Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Every Day (affiliate link). We've liked all of the recipes I've tried from it. As I flipped through the salads, I saw a beautiful picture of a charred corn salad... which involved charring cobs of corn over a grill and cutting them from it. It seemed like a lot of effort, but I adapted it and have loved it ever since.
As a bonus, my changes made it weeknight-friendly and delicious in all seasons!
- Frozen corn & green beans
- Grape tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Onion, garlic, red pepper flakes
- Lime juice
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
I decided to use frozen corn instead of cobs of corn for convenience. Same for frozen cut green beans. No need to thaw either. I use 12 ounce or 16 ounce bags, whatever I have around.
You can skip the grape tomatoes if you want, or just use chopped tomatoes, but they are a nice accent when they're in season. If all you have is canned tomatoes, skip them entirely.
Deb's salad has crispy shallots. I loved them. But the calories didn't make it friendly for an everyday meal, so I had to cut them. I replaced them with finely chopped, sauteed onions at the beginning of the dish, and cut out raw ones, which we simply don't like.
I cut back on the dressing, but even at this amount I often have some at the bottom of our plates. I cut fish sauce from Deb's original recipe and swapped in soy sauce. (I use lower sodium soy sauce here, just like in my Spicy Pork with Asparagus or Soy-Cola Braised Pork recipes.)
Brown sugar and lime juice round out the dressing. Although I do use fresh lime juice in my Steak Salad with Lime and Cashews, I think bottled would be okay here, especially in a pinch.
You can use cilantro, mint, or basil as a garnish, or you can skip it.
Instructions
This is a true 30-minute meal, and there's very little to do in advance. Just finely mince your onion, and get started!
- In a 12-inch cast iron skillet (affiliate link), heat the olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add the onion, and cook for 3-4 minutes without stirring, until it starts to brown. Then stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes.
- Stir in the frozen corn. It will thaw as it cooks. Let cook 4 minutes. If you don't stir it, it should brown, but stir it if necessary.
- Stir in green beans. Cook another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally if necessary.
- Meanwhile, combine lime juice, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a small bowl.
- Transfer the vegetables into a serving bowl. Add the tomatoes, pour over the dressing, and garnish with cilantro.
Enjoy immediately!
Serving and Storage
Serve immediately. We get 4 servings of this as a side. We usually have a thin steak or pork chop as our main dish with it, but serving it alongside seared shrimp makes for a super-healthy meal. In a pinch, it can serve two as a main dish salad for veggie lovers.
I've never tried it, but I bet it would be good over thin rice noodles as a summer pasta salad vibe.
You can refrigerate leftovers and eat them later. However, the lime juice in this will begin to lightly pickle the green beans; they're usually more of a dull green after they've been in the fridge. This is an aesthetic issue; I don't mind eating it this way.
Recipe FAQ
Using frozen vegetables means I don't have to clean and prepare them, which makes this meal weeknight-friendly. Corn and green beans cook perfectly in this dish, straight from the freezer.
If you don't have fresh tomatoes, leave them out. Don't substitute canned; they won't be good here.
If you don't have limes, use bottled lime juice.
If you don't have cilantro, basil, or mint for a garnish, skip it.
If you don't have an onion, increase the garlic to a tablespoon.
If you don't have frozen vegetables, you can try canned, but only if you drain and rinse them first. Cut back on the soy sauce; canned vegetables alone are salty enough.
Some, but not all, soy sauces include wheat. Check the ingredients on your soy sauce to be sure it doesn't contain gluten. All the other ingredients in this recipe are gluten-free.
More Recipes with Soy Sauce
Here's a few of my other favorite dishes that take soy sauce.
More Recipes with Lime Juice
Here's a few of my other favorite recipes that take lime juice.
Interested in other recipes? I save and share recipes I like or want to try on my Pinterest page - follow me there! You can also check out my Facebook page for more recipes and helpful tips. I'm also happy to try to help troubleshoot my recipes there.
Have you tried this recipe? Or have a question about it? Rate it or leave a comment below! (PS: rating my recipes helps other people find them, too!)
📖 Recipe
Corn and Green Bean Salad with Lime
Equipment
- 12-inch cast iron skillet (affiliate link)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (28 grams)
- 1 small onion (3-4 ounces; very finely minced)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (2 cloves)
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (to taste)
- 16 ounces corn (455 grams) (frozen, unthawed corn works great)
- 12 ounces sliced green beans (320 grams) (frozen, unthawed green beans work great)
- 1 cup grape tomatoes (halved or diced) (about half of a carton)
- basil or cilantro (optional; to garnish)
Dressing
- 4 tablespoons lime juice (60 grams)
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (22 grams)
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar (8 grams)
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large (cast iron) skillet over medium heat. Add minced onion and cook until browned, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and stir to combine.
- Add corn. Cook for about 4 minutes; don't stir if you want them to brown. That said, stir if necessary.
- Stir in green beans. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine lime juice, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Set aside.
- Dish salad into a serving plate or bowl. Top with tomatoes. Pour dressing over the vegetables. Serve garnished with basil or cilantro if desired.
Notes
[Post lightly rewritten and restructured July 27, 2025.]
Leona Konkel says
It's my recipe, and I love how this warm corn and green bean salad truly comes together in 30 minutes! Plus, I love how it uses freezer vegetables. I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe as much as we do!