Southwest Pasta Salad
on May 29, 2024, Updated Aug 12, 2024
This southwest pasta salad is made with fresh veggies, rotini pasta, and coated in a creamy homemade chipotle ranch dressing.
Pasta salad is always a favorite side dish for potlucks, picnics, or lunches in the warm summer months.
Today’s pasta salad recipe that I am sharing was inspired by my favorite southwest salad recipe!
This delicious southwest pasta salad features crunchy fresh veggies, cooked rotini noodles, black beans, and the most delicious homemade creamy chipotle ranch dressing to tie it all together.
Ingredients you’ll need
- rotini pasta: you can substitute whole wheat or gluten free pasta
- fresh corn: you can use canned corn, but the fresh really has the best flavor!
- lime
- red bell pepper: or any color bell pepper
- red onion
- black beans
- cilantro
- cherry tomatoes
- chipotle ranch dressing
How to make southwest pasta salad
Step 1: First, start by making a batch of the chipotle ranch dressing in a blender or food processor.
The chipotle ranch is made with sour cream, mayonnaise, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, fresh lime juice, and a few spices. It’s creamy, mildly spicy, and so flavorful! You can adjust the peppers to taste to make it more or less spicy.
Step 2: Cook the rotini pasta to al dente according to the package directions, then drain and rinse with cold water immediately to stop the cooking process.
Step 3: Prepare the vegetables for the pasta salad. Cut up the fresh ears of corn, cherry tomatoes, red onion, red bell pepper, and cilantro.
Step 4: Add the drained black beans, corn, bell pepper, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro to a large serving bowl. Once the pasta is cool and mostly dry, add it to the other ingredients in the bowl.
Step 5: Add 1 ¼ cups of the homemade chipotle ranch dressing and stir well to combine. Chill the southwest pasta salad in the fridge for at least one hour before serving.
Avoiding dry pasta salad
Pasta salad will dry out once it is in the fridge for too long.
This dish will be best served after an hour in the fridge, which is long enough to marinate the ingredients with the dressing, but not too long to dry it out.
You will have about ½ cup of salad dressing leftover when you make this recipe. I suggest saving this to stir into any leftover pasta salad to give it some creaminess when you eat the leftovers!
More Pasta Salad Recipes
This is a great southwestern pasta salad recipe for any occasion. Try it for your next party, potluck, bbq, or as a side dish for summer!
Southwest Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz rotini pasta
- 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 ears of corn, cut from the cob
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- ½ red onion, chopped
- 10 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
For the Chipotle Ranch Dressing
- 8 oz sour cream
- ¾ cup mayo
- 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dill
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons lime juice
Instructions
- Make a batch of the chipotle ranch dressing in a blender or food processor
- Cook the rotini to al dente according to the package directions, then drain and rinse with cold water immediately
- Make the chipotle ranch dressing by combining all of the ingredients together in a blender or food processor until smooth.
- Add the drained black beans, corn, bell pepper, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro to a bowl. Once the pasta is cool and mostly dry, add it to the other ingredients in the bowl
- Add 1 ¼ cups of the homemade chipotle ranch dressing and stir well to combine. Store the leftover chipotle ranch dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Chill the pasta salad in the fridge for at least one hour before serving
If corn on the cob is not available (winter time), would frozen or canned work? Also, how many cups approximately?
I would do canned and around 1 to 1.5 cups. Just drain it well first!