Cowboy Pasta Salad - The Keep At Dwelling Chef

This is likely one of the most filling pasta salads on the market! It’s filled with meat, cheese, beans, and greens. Deliver to a BBQ or make as a fast and straightforward dinner at house and we promise there gained’t be any complaints about leaving hungry!

Should you love this recipe, you’ll love our “cowboy caviar” Black Bean and Corn Salad.

Why Our Recipe

Loaded with all the good things. We’re speaking beef, bacon, cheddar, and veggies.
Our creamy selfmade salsa verde dressing brings a smoky kick you’ll love.
Makes for a brilliant filling dinner, or deliver it to a potluck or BBQ to feed a crowd.

A Bowl full of Cowboy Pasta Salad displaying the ingredients on top.

Half of this pasta salad’s flavorful goodness comes from our scrumptious, selfmade dressing. It’s our secret ingredient! Keep in mind, pasta salad is barely pretty much as good because the dressing you placed on it. Our cowboy dressing is made with salsa verde, lime juice, and loads of smoky spices and seasonings. The salsa lets you actually mess around with the warmth degree, so when you prefer it scorching, make sure that to make use of medium to scorching salsa.

Ingredient Notes

Overhead layout of Ingredients for Cowboy Pasta Salad.

Rotini Pasta: Rotini’s nice for grabbing onto all that dressing. No rotini? Use one other brief pasta like fusilli or penne.
Floor Beef: We like utilizing 80/20 beef for the very best taste. Floor turkey or hen works too if you’d like it just a little lighter.
Cheddar Cheese: Sharp cheddar brings just a little additional punch, however actually, any cheese you like will work. Pepper jack can be superior if you’d like just a little kick.
Cherry or Grape Tomatoes: Both one is ideal. Lower them in halves or quarters so that you get the right chew. A mixture of pink and yellow tomatoes seems to be actually fairly too.
Black Beans: Give them an excellent rinse and drain to maintain issues from getting soggy.
Canned Corn: Completely superb to make use of straight from the can, however you may also use uncooked recent corn or frozen corn.
Crimson Onion: Crimson onions are the very best for consuming uncooked.
Jalapeño: Completely non-obligatory! Recent jalapeños add a pleasant spicy crunch, or use pickled for rather less warmth.
Bacon: Crumble it up! Prepare dinner your individual or seize the pre-cooked sort.
Salsa Verde: Seize a jar of your favourite gentle or medium salsa verde. Use no matter warmth degree you want.
Lime Juice: Recent-squeezed is all the time going to have the very best taste, however bottled lime juice works too.

Modify the Warmth

Among the finest issues about cowboy pasta is how straightforward it’s to tweak the spice. Should you’re into warmth, seize a scorching salsa verde, bump up the chili powder, and toss just a few additional jalapeño slices on prime. Not a fan of spicy? Stick to gentle salsa and skip the chili powder and jalapeños. Straightforward!

Closeup image of Cowboy Pasta Salad with dressing drizzled over it.

Make-Forward Directions

This salad’s tremendous straightforward to make forward. You possibly can whip up the dressing 1 to 2 days early and stash it within the fridge. Prepare dinner the pasta and floor beef the evening earlier than, too. Simply maintain them separate so all the pieces stays recent. Whenever you’re able to eat, all you’ve received to do is chop the cheese and tomatoes and toss all of it collectively in an enormous bowl. Achieved and performed.