Ingredients You’ll Need

All you need for honey vinaigrette is 4 ingredients and 5 minutes (plus salt)! There’s no need to buy store-bought dressings when homemade is this simple and good. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• Honey: Any honey works, but raw or wildflower honey brings floral notes a plastic bear can’t. If yours has crystallized, you can warm the jar in hot water before measuring.
• White wine vinegar: This is the bright counterpart to the sweet. Apple cider vinegar works too.
• Dijon mustard: Dijon adds flavor and is also an emulsifier, which is what makes the dressing creamy instead of separated.
• Olive oil: Use a good extra virgin olive oil.

Flavor Variations To Try

Here are a few riffs on this dressing you might enjoy:

• Hot honey vinaigrette. Add hot sauce, a pinch of red pepper flakes, or swap in hot honey for a spicy variation.
• Chipotle-style honey vinaigrette. Swap red wine vinegar for white, and whisk in a finely minced chipotle pepper in adobo plus a pinch of oregano.
• Lemon honey vinaigrette. Replace half the vinegar with fresh lemon juice for something brighter. (See also: Lemon Vinaigrette.)
• Honey balsamic. Use balsamic vinegar instead of white wine vinegar; a spin on my Go-To Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Ways To Use Honey Vinaigrette

I created this honey vinaigrette especially for my favorite apple salad, but it works with a variety of different salad recipes from sweet to savory. Here are a few ideas:

• Go for classic Apple Salad
• Opt for Watercress Salad with Apple or Goat Cheese Arugula Salad
• Try it on Endive Salad with Orange or Frisee Salad
• Go for Butternut Squash Salad, Sweet Potato Salad, Pear Salad or Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
• Try it on Pomegranate Salad or Perfect Spinach Salad

How to Peel Hard Boiled Eggs

After the hard-boiled eggs sit in the ice water, peel the ones you want to eat immediately. You can store leftover unpeeled eggs in the fridge for up to 1 week. Here are a few tips on how to peel eggs:

• Older eggs peel easier than fresh eggs. A dozen that’s been in the refrigerator for about 1 week are the best to use for hard boiling.
• Use the right boiling method, or even better, an Instant Pot. An Instant Pot makes eggs that are easiest to peel. Use our Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs method, or use the boiling method below.
• Gently tap the larger end of the egg so that the shell crushes. The wide end of the egg has an air bubble, which makes it easier to crush the shell. Then start to peel off the shell. Continue peeling the shell until all the pieces are removed.

Other Ways to Cook Perfect Eggs

The stovetop is my default, but it isn’t the only way:

• Instant Pot hard boiled eggs: The easiest eggs to peel, and it’s totally hands off.
• Steamed hard boiled eggs: Faster, since you only heat an inch of water.
• Perfect soft boiled eggs: Same pot, different timing. It gives a runny yolk I like to use for something like miso ramen and dippy eggs and soldiers.
• Perfect poached eggs and how to cook eggs 10 ways: More go-to methods.

Ways To Serve Them

There are so many things to make with hard boiled eggs; here are a few of my favorites:

• Try my easy deviled eggs
• Healthy egg salad and my ultimate egg salad sandwich
• Try niçoise salad or Salmon niçoise salad
• Vegetarian Cobb salad with rows of halved eggs
• 10 things to make with hard boiled eggs for more

Ingredients You’ll Need

Jump to the recipe card below for full quantities; here are my notes about why I chose each:

• Bowtie, cavatappi, or fusilli pasta: A short pasta is best here: ridges, twists, etc help to catch the dressing. I like using a fun noodle shape to make things more interesting.
• Fresh corn on the cob: It’s worth grilling the corn for the incredible flavor! But you can use frozen or canned if you like.
• Black beans: This isn’t part of Mexican street corn, but it adds more veggies and a little fiber to the salad.
• Green onions and cilantro: Add just the right fresh flavor.
• Cotija or feta cheese: Cotija is a Mexican cheese that is salty, crumbly, and makes the salad, but feta works too.
• For the dressing: I use just enough mayo, along with lime juice and a mix of spices that tastes incredible but is also fresh and homemade.

How To Cook The Corn

My tip for a next level Mexican street corn salad: don’t skip the grill! Mexican street corn is charred, and that’s the whole point here. Those slightly bitter, caramelized edges that make elote taste like elote.

That said, I totally understand if you don’t have a grill or even don’t want to wait for yours to preheat. Here are the various options!

• Grilling the corn: I shuck it, coat with olive oil and place it on the grill grates at medium-high for 12 to 15 minutes. More technique in How to Grill Corn on the Cob, including the husk-on method.
• Sautéing the corn: You can also use fresh, frozen or canned corn and sauté it in a skillet for a few minutes in butter or olive oil. It’s not quite as tasty, but it also works! You could follow my skillet corn recipe (without the seasonings).

Variations And Substitutions

If you want to mix it up, here are a few ideas:

• Make it more filling: shredded grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, or diced avocado makes it more filling
• Make it spicy: Add minced jalapeño in the dressing or a pinch of chipotle chili powder.
• Make it vegan: Use vegan mayo plus dairy-free feta or a sprinkle of nutritional yeast
• Swap the beans: Pinto beans also work here

What To Serve With It

This pasta salad is my new favorite for any summer gathering — here are a few ways I like to serve it:

• Burgers, like my favorite chicken burger and black bean burger
• Grilled chicken or grilled shrimp skewers
• My best grilled vegetables
• Tortilla chips and black bean hummus
• A margarita pitcher or a pitcher of limeade
• Watermelon mint salad

More Corn Recipes To Try

• Elote (Mexican Grilled Corn)
• Black Bean and Corn Salad
• Mexican Street Corn Dip
• Elote Salad
• 15 Great Cold Pasta Salad Recipes
• 21 Tasty Corn Recipes
• 20 Tasty Grilled Side Dishes

Ingredients You’ll Need

There are only three, so each one has to be quality:

• Ripe watermelon: An underripe melon cannot be saved, so you’ve got to have the best ripe summer melon here. Seedless is easiest to work with.
• Fresh lime juice: Squeeze it yourself. Bottled tastes flat, so always grab a fresh lime.
• Fresh mint: Spearmint is the standard grocery-store variety — I personally always grow my own herbs in the summer.

All you’ve got to do? Chop up the melon, chop up the mint, and add the lime juice. Simple as that!

How to Cut a Watermelon Into Cubes

More Summer Salad Recipes To Try

• Mix up a Tortellini Salad or Antipasto Salad
• Use the season’s corn with Elote Salad or Corn Salad
• Go classic with Three Bean Salad
• Make the easiest Quick Black Bean and Corn Salad
• Mix up Broccoli Salad or Broccoli Slaw

Potato Salad Variations to Try

• Vegan Potato Salad: Tastes just like classic potato salad, but uses cashews to make a creamy sauce.
• French Potato Salad: It’s sophisticated and flavor-packed, featuring a zingy vinaigrette, red potatoes, capers, and parsley.
• Dill Potato Salad: This one is classic and bursting with fresh herbs and flavored with olive oil and vinegar.
• Red Potato Salad: My favorite salad starring red potatoes instead of Yukon golds.