Southwest Pasta Salad embraces the sweetness of cream style corn, along with the spiciness of chipotle sauce to create a cold pasta salad that is perfect served with grilled meat, chicken, or shrimp. Super easy to make and it’s a great side dish to serve on a hot summer day!
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This cold pasta salad is great for potlucks, BBQs and any day of the week as a satisfying side dish. It’s super easy to make and goes great alongside your grilled chicken, steak or burgers!
How to make Southwest Pasta Salad
Start out by cooking your pasta according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, work on the dressing. Only 3 ingredients are needed for the dressing … cream style corn, chipotle sauce and lime juice. Mix them in a bowl until they are well combined and set aside.
Drain and rinse the pasta under cold water once it is finished cooking. If you are using canned black beans and corn, drain them and then give them a rinse before tossing into the pasta. Add the pimentos, green onions, cilantro, pepper jack cheese and the dressing and then toss to coat all of the ingredients. Cover and let chill in the fridge before serving. Add the avocado right before serving to prevent them from browning.
Tips for making southwest pasta salad
- This salad is best served cold and it gets better and better as it chills so I would even make this a day ahead of time if you can.
- Since this pasta salad has no mayonnaise, you don’t have to worry about it spoiling in the hot sun.
- Serve along side a Chicken Salad Sandwich.
- Wait until you serve it to add the chopped avocados to avoid them turning brown in the fridge.
- The chipotle sauce used in this recipe is a canned chipotle sauce. If you can not find this type of sauce, replace it with any kind of chipotle flavored hot sauce.
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Southwest Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz. bowtie pasta one package
- 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
- 1 can corn rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup diced pimentos
- 3 green onions chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 4 oz. pepper-jack cheese diced (half a block)
- 1/2 cup cream style corn canned
- 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce canned
- juice of one lime
- 1 avocado
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse under cold water.
- Toss the ingredients, except the avocado, in a large mixing bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
- Dice the avocado and toss into the salad right before serving.
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Notes
- This salad is can be made a day ahead of time.
- Add avocado right before serving.
- Chipotle flavored hot sauce can be used instead of chipotle sauce.
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