Cameron Diaz Won a Celebrity Corn Salad Taste Test With a Splash of Orange Juice

Her 15-Minute Side Dish Beat Recipes From Reese Witherspoon, Ree Drummond, and Pepper Teigen

Cameron Diaz’s corn salad took first place in an Allrecipes blind taste test, and one of its most distinctive ingredients was fresh orange juice. Diaz used it in a champagne vinegar dressing, then tossed it with pan-roasted corn, raw sugar snap peas, and feta. The dish came together in about 15 minutes.

Diaz’s recipe was one of several celebrity dishes that performed well in the publication’s taste tests. Matthew McConaughey made tuna salad with crispy jalapeños and wasabi. Bethenny Frankel started with a supermarket rotisserie chicken. And Reese Witherspoon earned one of the highest scores in the roundup with a chocolate Derby pie.

Orange Juice Softened the Bite of the Vinegar

Diaz roasted fresh corn in a pan until the kernels began to pop, then combined it with uncooked sugar snap peas and salty feta. The warm corn, crisp peas, and creamy cheese gave the salad a mix of textures before the dressing went on.

The fresh orange juice added sweetness to balance the champagne vinegar. Diaz said that was how she softened the vinegar’s sharpness without adding white sugar. It was a small change to the dressing, but it gave all three main ingredients something in common. The same bright flavor ran through the sweet corn, the fresh peas, and the salty feta.

McConaughey and Frankel Started With Ingredients They Already Had

McConaughey’s Sunday-night tuna salad grew out of what he had in the refrigerator. He added crispy jalapeños for crunch and wasabi for heat. His version outranked four other celebrity recipes in its taste test, even though it began as a way to use up what was already on hand.

Frankel took a different route with her chicken salad. She shredded a rotisserie chicken by hand and added a splash of celery juice. The supermarket chicken took care of the cooking, leaving her to concentrate on the texture and seasoning. Her version beat recipes from established culinary names in its own comparison.

Michelle Obama, Dolly Parton, and Reese Witherspoon Had Their Own Shortcuts

Michelle Obama placed third in an apple pie taste test with a recipe that used store-bought pastry. That saved her the work of making a crust from scratch, although the pie still spent about three hours in the oven. The shortcut reduced the hands-on preparation without shortening the bake.

Dolly Parton’s macaroni and cheese earned 7.9 out of 10 with Velveeta as a featured ingredient. Witherspoon’s chocolate Derby pie scored 9.8 out of 10. Made with pecans and walnuts, it cost about $10 to prepare.

The recipes succeeded in different ways. A ready-made crust simplified pie prep. A cooked chicken gave Frankel a head start. For Diaz, the useful shortcut was a splash of juice that already had the sweetness her vinaigrette needed. It was enough to turn a quick corn salad into the favorite of its taste test.