Confetti Corn with Peppers and Herbs

By Inger Mar 15, 2025 Fruits & Vegetables 8 Comments

Confetti corn brings together golden sweet corn, savory ripe peppers and flavorful herbs for a dish that is easy to make, but complex in flavor.

Whatever the season, a breath of summer is always welcome. And this Confetti corn delivers a delightful blend of sunny, colorful and tasty. It’s reminiscent of cookouts and yard parties, but welcome–all year round!

And did I mention it’s easy?

This all started when one of my CSAs had a huge sweet corn harvest. To consume the bounty, I made Confetti Corn often, to the delight of my family. Then I froze the leftover corn (though commercial canned or frozen is also good) so we could have the fun all over again in winter.

I got this recipe when a friend served it at a party, but an online search tells me it probably came from Ina Garten, though I have modified it slightly.

Why You’ll Love This!

Flavorful. Corn is delicious in the first place, but add peppers, onion and herbs and it’s over the top good!

Easy. Just chop a few ingredients and sautee together. Easy peasy!

Healthy. Don’t you love getting a little extra vegetable goodness, like the peppers and onions included here! Add a veggie!

All season. The ingredients are readily available year-round, and also easy to freeze if you’re a locavore like me (see Tips below).

What You’ll Need

Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil and/or butter. I use both–the olive oil to sautee and the butter for flavor at the end.
Red onion. This adds flavor, color and nutrition.
Red or orange bell pepper. This adds flavor, color and nutrition—red will pop more than orange. Mini peppers or banana peppers also work well when bell peppers aren’t available. And frozen works too.
Sweet corn. This is the main ingredients. You can use fresh, canned or frozen.
Salt, pepper. These enhance flavor.
Fresh herbs. This adds flavor and color. In the winter I typically use thyme–it lasts for weeks so I tend to keep it stocked in my refrigerator. Other good options are julienned basil, chopped chives or chopped parsley.

Special Tools

No special tools are needed.

Step by Step Overview

In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add chopped pepper and cook another few minutes.

Add the corn, salt and pepper. Cook until tender for fresh corn, about 5 minutes, or heat until warm for canned or frozen corn.

Stir in butter and herbs then heat until butter is melted. Enjoy warm!

On Freezing Corn and Peppers

If you’re lucky enough to have access to an abundance of fresh sweet corn (or peppers) I am here to tell you that it’s easy to freeze these for winter.

First a little freezing background. Did you know that most vegetables should be blanched (boiled for a few minutes) prior to freezing? This stops enzymatic activity that would otherwise degrade the quality, even frozen.

But there are also a few vegetables that can be frozen without any pre-cooking. Peppers (and whole tomatoes) are an example of this. To freeze peppers, I remove the stem and as many seeds as I can get at, seal them in a zip loc bag and pop in the freezer. Often, I’ll halve or quarter larger peppers (except for poblanos which I use all year for Chiles Rellenos) to fit more in the bag. So easy!

How to Freeze Sweet Corn

There are three methods that I’ve used to freeze corn but I’ll give you details about my favorite. First, I (carefully) cut off the corn kernels from the cob using a sharp knife. Then I bring a large saucepan or stockpot of water to a boil, add the kernels and boil for 4 minutes. And if you’d like, save the cobs for a tasty broth—see Tips below for more information.

When done, I’ll strain through a strainer (sometimes I’ll save the cooking liquid to concentrate for broth) and run some cold water over the corn to cool it quickly. Then I either freeze in 2-4 cup containers or spread out on a cloth lined rimmed baking sheet and transfer to a zip loc as loose corn when firm (often I do a combination of these).

The second method is to boil the corn on the cob, then cool in a tub of ice water and cut off the kernels after. This is slightly easier but more time consuming since the cobs take up a lot of space in the kettle, and usually require a few batches.

The third method which I’ll use in a pinch is to boil the whole cob, chill and freeze on the cob. It’s the very fastest though it just defers the cutting until later since frozen isn’t good for eating “on the cob”. But if I got a whole bunch of corn right before a vacation, this is what I’d do.

The Blog Dance Around the Kitchen did a comparison of a few freezing methods and concluded that the first method listed above produced the best results, though the results of the second method below were close.

Tips & FAQs

Peppers of all varieties are usually on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of most contaminated fruits and vegetables. So I try to go organic on these. And since ripe bell peppers can often be quite pricey, I usually compare the mini peppers and sub those if cheaper—organic as well.

Still more corn to use up? For another great recipe that highlights sweet corn, take a look at my Iowa BBQ soup.

Corn cobs make a tasty vegan soup broth! After you’ve stripped the corn off, you can boil the cobs (with or without additional aromatics like carrot, onion, celery parsley) for a delicious, slightly sweet broth. I’ll freeze this and use it for sweeter soups like my Pumpkin Pear Soup or African Sweet Potato Soup.

Peppers come in a lot of colors. For the most impressive Confetti Corn, go with vibrant red peppers rather than orange.

Confetti Corn

Confetti corn brings together fresh sweet corn, savory ripe peppers and flavorful herbs for a dish that is simple to make but complex in flavor.

Author: Inger

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Total Time 25

Course Fruits & Vegetables

Cuisine American

Servings

Calories 130 kcal