This nutritious and easy Southwestern pasta steak salad is the perfect cold salad recipe to whip up for the entire family!
Pasta salads are the perfect side dish to make when you’re hosting a party at your home or going for a potluck. They’re easy to make, super delicious, and are very filling too. This Southwestern pasta steak salad is loaded with a ton of healthy ingredients and is super flavorful too!
Can’t wait to try it out? Here’s what you need to know before you do!
What Other Ingredients Can I Add?
While this pasta salad is already full of bold flavors, you can still take it up a notch and add in a few ingredients that will boost its taste and nutritive value.
- Pepper jack cheese
- Chopped lettuce
- Chopped green onions
- Ground, cooked beef
- Sliced olives
- Cooked shrimp
- Chopped chives
- Sliced, hard-boiled eggs
- Steamed broccoli
Tips & Tricks to Make it Better
While this recipe is pretty straightforward and simple, there are some tips and tricks you can implement to make the salad taste even better.
First, remember to add the avocados towards the end, right before you serve. This will keep them from turning brown.
If you’re making the salad in advance, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Making it in advance and serving it the next day is great because it really allows the flavors to develop and intensify.
Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before you mix them all together. This will help prevent the salad from getting all watery and lumpy.
How Can I Store the Leftovers?
Got leftovers? You can easily store this pasta steak salad or literally any other salad by simply transferring it to an airtight container and placing it in your refrigerator. The salad can stay fresh in there for 3-5 days.
Freezing this salad is not ideal, since it will cause most of the ingredients to lose their texture and turn watery and lumpy.
Serving Ideas & Suggestions
Most pasta salads can be a wonderful side to team up with your protein-based mains like hamburgers, sandwiches, and hot dogs. Since this salad is loaded with healthy veggies and has some steak in there too, you can have it as is too. It can be quite healthy and filling on its own.
If you’re still keen on having something to go with it, consider a light side like corn on the cob, cornbread, Italian pinwheels, deviled eggs, fried chicken, or stir-fried okra.
And of course, you can’t go wrong with some nachos or tortilla chips to pair with this pasta salad. They add in a nice element of crunch, and if you serve them with the base dressing you made for this recipe, they’ll taste even better!
Loved how delicious and easy this salad turned out to be? Here are a few other exciting and interesting salad recipes to try your hands at.
Southwestern Pasta Steak Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb cooked pasta your favorite shape, al dente, cooled
- ½ c frozen corn steamed in microwave
- 1 - 14.5 oz can of black beans drained
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 tbsp red bell pepper finely diced
- 1 tbsp green bell pepper finely diced
- 1 tbsp jalapeno pepper finely diced
- ½ pint cherry tomatoes coarsely sliced
- 1 - 4 oz can of diced green chilis
- 10 oz barbecued steak dices
- ½ c salad dressing
- ¼ c sour cream
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp chipotle powder
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 juice of lime
- 1 avocado thinly sliced
- fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Cook, drain and cool the pasta.
- Slice and dice the ingredients listed above.
- Slice your avocado lengthwise and coat with half of the lime juice to prevent browning.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the pasta, corn, peas, black beans, red onion, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, green chilis, and steak. Mix these together well.
- In small mixing bowl, combine the salad dressing, sour cream, chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, garlic and salt and stir until well mixed.
- Stir this mixture into the pasta vegetable mixture you made above.
- Garnish with avocado slices, a squirt of lime juice and a sprig of cilantro.
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