This Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad is light, refreshing, and delicious. Serve as a side dish or add grilled chicken to make this a perfect meal on its own.

Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad

We love Mexican food! I especially love taco salad. My mother-in-law makes a killer Southwestern Taco Salad, it’s the dressing that makes it so spectacular.

This Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad is light, refreshing, and delicious. Serve as a side dish or add grilled chicken to make this a perfect meal on its own.
Inspired by this and needing an easy, quick side dish to take to all our summer get-togethers. I came up with this pasta salad, using my mother-in-law’s dressing…this turned out oh so good! I added grilled chicken on top of it, which made it a complete meal. So serve it as a side dish or as the main course with your choice of meat.

This Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad is light, refreshing, and delicious. Serve as a side dish or add grilled chicken to make this a perfect meal on its own.
Enjoy! XOXO San

How do you make Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad?

  • Add all dressing ingredients to a mason jar with a lid and shake until combined; you can also add to a small bowl and stir.

  • In a large bowl combine all the salad ingredients. Add dressing and toss to combine.

  • Serve immediately or cover and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Love pasta salad? Try my Easy Pasta Salad or this Mango Pasta Salad!

Don’t forget to pin this to your favorite Pinterest board to save for later!

Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad pinterest image (1)

Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Servings: 10 -12
Calories: 425 kcal
This Easy Southwestern Pasta Salad is light, refreshing, and delicious. Serve as a side dish or add grilled chicken to make this a perfect meal on its own.

Ingredients
 

Dressing

  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 4 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 4 teaspoons ground cumin

Pasta Salad

  • 1 pound mini bowtie pasta cooked, drained and cooled
  • 1 red or orange bell pepper diced
  • 1 green pepper diced
  • 3 corn cobs cooked and kernels removed from stem or 10 oz bag frozen corn defrosted
  • 15 ounce can black beans drained and rinsed
  • 10 ounces cherry tomatoes quartered, about 1 1/2 cups
  • 2 cups cilantro coarsely chopped, 1-2 bunches
  • 2 avocados cubed
  • 1 cup cotija cheese optional, crumbled

Instructions
 

  • Add all dressing ingredients to a mason jar with a lid and shake until combined; you can also add to a small bowl and stir vigorously.
  • In a large bowl, combine pasta, diced peppers, corn, black beans, cherry tomatoes, anc cilantro. Pour in dressing and toss to combine, then gently toss in the avocado and cotija cheese.
  • Serve immediately or cover and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Notes

Cook time is the amount of time for the noodles to boil.
Calories: 425kcalCarbohydrates: 59gProtein: 12gFat: 16gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 347mgPotassium: 643mgFiber: 8gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 935IUVitamin C: 38mgCalcium: 116mgIron: 2.8mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know what you think!

Kids Review – This salad has fresh vegetables, there were a little freaked but were willing to eat the noodles. They loved that part. I took this around to neighbors, well because it makes a lot. Everyone loved it!!! First reactions were “this is so amazing and fresh”, “this feels so light and healthy, better than your normal creamy pasta salad” and “colorful”.

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58 Comments

    1. And I know this dish will be perfect at summer cookouts! It make a really good amount and it’s amazing! Try it out this summer! xo San

    1. The kids make me laugh all the time. One day they will realize that the veggies make for a yummy part of the dish too. 🙂 Thanks for pinning, and have fun making it this summer! xo San

    1. Southwestern flavors are AMAZING and they are great in this pasta salad. Have fun making it this summer! xo San

    1. It is a beautiful dish for the summer! A perfect to take to a friend’s party or a family get together! Have fun make it this summer! xo San

    1. And it is easy. What is better than something that is good and easy?? Have fun trying it out! xo San

  1. What a fun twist on a traditional pasta salad. I am like you, I like anything Mexican inspired. Any chance you would be willing to share your mother in laws taco salad too? Thank you so much for sharing.

  2. Mmmm, this sounds so delicious! I could eat Mexican food every single day.:) Definitely pinning to make this summer to go with some of our grilling. Thanks so much for sharing on Inspire Me Wednesday. Featuring you in this week’s issue.

  3. Wow does this look amazing! And it’s loaded with lots of favorites too. I found you over The Silly Pearl. I host Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesday and would love it if you linked up this recipe. I’m sure our party goers would love it as much as I do. Here is the link http://bit.ly/1l4cu0j. Have a wonderful day!!

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