Easy Pasta Salad Recipe (so delicious & hearty!)
This easy, healthy, and hearty pasta salad is perfect for a warm-weather main dish or a side dish for potlucks! Delicious immediately or to serve as leftovers!
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Servings: 6 -8 servings*
Ingredients
For the Pasta Salad
- 1 16 oz box pasta
- 6-8 pieces of cooked bacon or 1/2-1 c of packaged cooked bacon pieces
- 6-8 hard-boiled eggs cut up in to bite-sized pieces
- 1 c chopped tomatoes
- 1-2 c chopped sweet peppers red, yellow, orange peppers
- 1/2 c sliced pepperoncinis
- 1 c peas frozen or fresh
- 1 c Feta cheese crumbles
- 1/2 c Kalamata olives
- 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans drained & rinsed
- 1/2 c shelled pistachios
Homemade Italian Dressing
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/8 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 c distilled white vinegar
- 2/3 c canola or vegetable oil
- 3/4-1 c pasta water reserved from when you boiled the pasta
Instructions
- If you're using raw bacon (vs. packaged pre-cooked bacon pieces), cook the bacon - on the stovetop or in the oven - and set aside.
- In a large pot of salted water, boil the pasta according to package directions + add 2 minutes to the cook time. It hardens up after being stored in the fridge, so cooking it longer will help it stay soft. Drain the pasta, but make sure to reserve 3/4-1 c of pasta water for the salad dressing.
- Combine all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl & stir.
- Combine all of the salad dressing ingredients in a mason jar & shake. If you're serving the pasta salad immediately and don't plan to have leftovers, go ahead and use all of the dressing. If you're planning to serve it later, pour on about 1/2-3/4 of the dressing, and then reserve the rest to pour on just before serving.
- Serve as a main dish, side dish, or as yummy leftovers! It'll keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. (It'll taste best if you have a little reserved dressing to pour onto it before eating it after it's been in the fridge.)
Notes
*If you're serving this as a main dish, it'll serve 6-8. If you're serving it as a side, though, it'll easily stretch to 10-12 servings.
OTHER NOTES:
Use any kind of "short" pasta
It really doesn't matter what you use, but any shorter pasta (like rotini, penne, or farfalle) is my preference vs. longer pastas like spaghetti or fettucini. Add the avocados later if you're not serving immediately
Wait until closer to serving time before dicing up and adding the avocados, just to keep them fresh and from turning brown in the salad. Use store-bought Italian dressing if you need to
The homemade dressing in here is DELISH, but you can definitely take a short-cut and use pre-made if you need to. Make it vegetarian
Need a vegetarian pasta salad? No problem - just omit the bacon and you're good to go! Serve it at room temperature if you're able
This is a cold pasta salad recipe, but the flavors come out more at room temp. So, if you're able, remove it from the fridge and let it sit for a little while before you serve it. (Or, just serve it immediately after making it.) Eat it for leftovers!
This is great the second day (or the day after!). Just store it in an airtight container in the fridge - other than the avocados, it'll keep well for 3-4 days. The avocados won't be bad, they'll just won't be as fresh. We eat this as leftovers all the time! Make it gluten-free if you need to
I haven't tried it with gluten-free pasta, but if you've used gluten-free pasta before and the texture has been fine, I don't see any reason why you couldn't use it for this recipe if you needed a GF option. Change up the ingredients
You can easily add even more ingredients in here if you want - sweet corn (straight from the freezer like I added the green beans), matchstick carrots, green bell peppers, fresh mozzarella, etc. are all great options of things to add!
It really doesn't matter what you use, but any shorter pasta (like rotini, penne, or farfalle) is my preference vs. longer pastas like spaghetti or fettucini. Add the avocados later if you're not serving immediately
Wait until closer to serving time before dicing up and adding the avocados, just to keep them fresh and from turning brown in the salad. Use store-bought Italian dressing if you need to
The homemade dressing in here is DELISH, but you can definitely take a short-cut and use pre-made if you need to. Make it vegetarian
Need a vegetarian pasta salad? No problem - just omit the bacon and you're good to go! Serve it at room temperature if you're able
This is a cold pasta salad recipe, but the flavors come out more at room temp. So, if you're able, remove it from the fridge and let it sit for a little while before you serve it. (Or, just serve it immediately after making it.) Eat it for leftovers!
This is great the second day (or the day after!). Just store it in an airtight container in the fridge - other than the avocados, it'll keep well for 3-4 days. The avocados won't be bad, they'll just won't be as fresh. We eat this as leftovers all the time! Make it gluten-free if you need to
I haven't tried it with gluten-free pasta, but if you've used gluten-free pasta before and the texture has been fine, I don't see any reason why you couldn't use it for this recipe if you needed a GF option. Change up the ingredients
You can easily add even more ingredients in here if you want - sweet corn (straight from the freezer like I added the green beans), matchstick carrots, green bell peppers, fresh mozzarella, etc. are all great options of things to add!