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!

HOW TO MAKE SOUTHWEST PASTA SALAD (60 SEC):

The base of this pasta salad is simple. It consists of bow-tie pasta, black beans, corn, pimentos, green onions, cilantro, avocado and pepper jack cheese. Only 3 ingredients are needed for the dressing … cream style corn, chipotle sauce and lime juice.

Like I said, super simple.

How to serve 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.

Southwest Pasta Salad

Author: Amy
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 8
Category: Salad
Method: Cooking
Cuisine: American

Description

Southwest Pasta Salad is a cold pasta salad that is light, with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice. It’s a great side dish to serve on a hot summer day.

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.