Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
This Texas-inspired Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad can be enjoyed as a yummy side dish or as a complete summer meal.
Packed with vegetables (fresh or canned), crumbled bacon and a light tangy dressing, it’s a nutritious and wholesome recipe that’s hearty enough to feed the entire family.
You can easily add additional meat to this pasta dish such as leftover rotisserie chicken or even omit all forms of meat from the recipe to make it vegan-friendly and vegetarian! Even better is the fact that you can make most of this pasta salad ahead of time, only having the pasta to boil and mix in the with the prepared ingredients before serving.
With just a few minutes of chopping, you can rustle up this delicious pasta salad for tonight’s dinner! Easy-Pasta-Peasy!
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Recipe Notes:
- Frozen vegetables are not safe to eat uncooked which is why I recommend only adding cooked corn or canned corn to this pasta.
- You can make this dish ahead of time either by preparing and refrigerating the ingredients separately from the pasta and making the pasta just prior to serving OR making the entire pasta salad and then adding a few teaspoons of olive oil to moisten the salad just prior to serving.
- If you have any leftover cooked chicken in your fridge, add this to your pasta salad to create a new meal with this recipe.
- You can opt for precooked bacon for this pasta salad.
- To add heat to this pasta dish, try including some chopped jalapeño or serrano peppers.
Yes, definitely! While this recipe includes bacon, you can easily omit it for a vegan-friendly and vegetarian pasta dish!
No, you don’t need to. In fact, adding the dressing and other ingredients to pasta immediately after it has cooked will assist with the absorption of flavors in the pasta.
Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Place bacon on a foil lined baking sheet, cook for 20 minutes or until desired doneness. Cool and then crumble the bacon, set aside.
- Bring pot of water to boil, salt water, add pasta. Cook according to package directions, until pasta is al dente, about 8 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl add cooked noodles, bacon, black beans, black eye peas, white corn, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and cilantro. Add avocados just before serving.
- In a small mixing bowl whisk together dressing ingredients, pour dressing over pasta salad, toss to combine.
- Add avocados. You can serve immediately but I recommend chilling in the refrigerator for at least 30 mins.
Filling Pasta Salads To Try!
Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
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Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
- 16 oz box of pasta bowties, shells, rotini or noodle of your choice
- 1/2 pound of bacon cooked and crumbled
- 15 ounce can black beans drained
- 15 ounce can blacked eyed peas
- 11 ounce can of white corn drained
- 1 small red onion diced
- 2 bell peppers any color
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 3 avocados peeled and chopped
Dressing Ingredients
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Place bacon on a foil lined baking sheet, cook for 20 minutes or until desired doneness. Cool and then crumble the bacon, set aside.
- Bring pot of water to boil, salt water, add pasta. Cook according to package directions, until pasta is al dente, about 8 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl add cooked noodles, bacon, black beans, black eye peas, white corn, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and cilantro. Add avocados just before serving.
- In a small mixing bowl whisk together dressing ingredients, pour dressing over pasta salad, toss to combine.
- Add avocados, serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
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