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This avocado pasta salad recipe is loaded with tomatoes, corn, pasta, and the best creamy avocado dressing you’ve ever had. Fresh pasta salad is a must at summer get-togethers, and if you’ve been looking for one that uses avocados in more ways than one, this recipe is for you! You still get an amazing creaminess from the dressing without the use of mayo and that’s just one reason of many that I love this avocado pasta salad!
Jump to Section
- Recipe at a Glance
- Ingredients to Make Avocado Pasta Salad
- Popular Substitutions and Additions
- How to make avocado pasta salad
- Tips for Making the Best Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
- What to Serve with This Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
- How to Store Avocado Pasta Salad
- Frequently asked questions
- More pasta salad recipes
- Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
This avocado pasta salad is seriously easy to make, and you don’t have to follow the recipe to a T. Choose any pasta you’d like, add some summer vegetables, like cherry tomatoes and sweet corn, and toss it in a homemade creamy avocado dressing that’s made with avocados, almond milk, and spinach. The dressing gives the pasta salad a vibrant color, and the vegetables round out the flavors of the pasta salad to make it well-balanced and satisfying!
This is a Great Pasta Salad. Thank You. I am vegan and do not eat oil. I omitted it. Nobody missed it. – Chicky
Recipe at a Glance
Cuisine Inspiration: American
Primary Cooking Method: Mixing
Dietary Info: Vegetarian
Key Flavor: Bright and creamy
Skill Level: Easy
Summary
- Super Easy: Just boil some water for your pasta, chop some veggies and use a food processor for your dressing and chill.
- Versatile: This avocado pasta salad recipe makes a great dinner side or addition to your next potluck or backyard bash.
- Nutritious: The avocado dressing and fresh vegetables are full of healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
- Customizable: Use your favorite pasta and vegetables to make this recipe uniquely your own.
Ingredients to Make Avocado Pasta Salad
- Rotini Pasta: Rotini’s corkscrew shape makes it perfect for pasta salad, allowing it to really hold on to the dressing.
- Avocado: Avocado is the base flavor for this pasta salad and is used in both the pasta salad and the dressing. It creates a rich, creamy texture and flavor while also adding healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals.
- Cherry Tomatoes: The bright flavor of cherry tomatoes works well with the rich, deep flavor of the avocado. Tomatoes are also full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
- Whole-Kernel Corn: Corn adds a pop of sweet texture to the salad.
- Basil: Basil adds a peppery, savory flavor and makes a wonderful garnish for the pasta salad.
- Baby Spinach: Spinach adds a fresh flavor and adds fiber, vitamins, minerals, and iron.
- Almond Milk: Almond milk helps thin the sauce a bit.
- Lemon Juice: Lemon juice adds a bright, citrus flavor to the dressing while keeping it from oxidizing and turning brown.
- Garlic: The robust garlic flavor adds a big kick of flavor to this dressing.
- Salt and Pepper: The classic seasoning combination. Salt intensifies the other flavors in the dressing, while pepper adds an earthy, slightly warm flavor.
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: The olive oil emulsifies with lemon juice to create the dressing and adds richness and healthy fat to the dressing.
Popular Substitutions and Additions
- Use your favorite vegetables. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add almost anything to it. Vegetables like red onions, broccoli, peas, olives, cucumbers, artichokes, bell peppers and celery all work well.
- Use any short, textured noodle variety. Rotini, fusilli, penne rigate, and rigatoni are all great choices.
- Whole grain noodles make it healthier. To limit simple carbs, use whole wheat noodles.
- Make it gluten-free. Use any kind of gluten-free pasta you enjoy to make a gluten-free pasta salad.
- Use any milk you prefer. Use your favorite plant-based milk or regular milk. You can even leave it out completely if you prefer.
- Switch out the spinach. Kale, arugula, parsley, cilantro, or basil can be used in the dressing instead of spinach to create different flavor profiles.
How to make avocado pasta salad
This avocado pasta salad is rich and creamy, and it brings all of the flavors in the dish together. It’s a great no-mayo option for a cold pasta dressing that also happens to be paleo and vegan.
Make the dressing
The most important part of this avocado pasta salad is the dressing. It’s rich, smooth, and so flavorful, and that’s what brings the recipe together. To make it, I recommend using a blender or food processor to get an ultra-creamy consistency. Throw in the ripe avocados, almond milk, spinach, lemon juice, and garlic.
While the blender or food processor is on, you’ll add just a tad of olive oil to help emulsify the dressing. The result is a vibrant green dressing that’s waiting to be tossed with the avocado pasta salad. The dressing may be too much for the pasta, but I like making a little extra to use as a dip for other foods or serve on the side.
Assemble the Pasta Salad
Now that you’ve whipped up the creamy avocado dressing, you just want to assemble everything together. That includes al dente cooked pasta, extra cut avocados, cherry tomatoes, sweet corn and basil for garnish.
Give everything a toss until the pasta is well coated with the dressing and then serve immediately or chill for one hour. It’s likely you’ll find that there is too much dressing for the pasta, so start small and add more dressing as you find necessary.
I loved it. I did add a little plain yogurt to the dressing. I didnt have any almond milk. The pasta salad was great. I also added some olives and salmon to my leftovers..family loved it. – Dee
Tips for Making the Best Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
- Cook the pasta al dente. When you’re eating pasta cold, the texture is really important to the overall appeal of the dish. For that reason, I always recommend cooking pasta al dente for salads. It keeps the pasta firm so it doesn’t become mushy when tossed with the dressing.
- Salt aggressively. It’s important to salt the boiling water before adding the pasta. The salt infuses into the pasta while boiling. So if you miss this step, it will be really hard to make up for it after the pasta is done cooking. Plus, you may just end up eating more salt that way.
- Don’t rinse off the pasta after it’s done cooking. Dress the pasta while hot so it sucks up the dressing and clings to it better without sauce leftover at the bottom of the dish. Allow the avocado dressing to cool down the pasta.
- Use ripe avocados. This helps it blend much more easily and offers a richer and creamy consistency similar to that of mayonnaise. It also helps to emulsify the dressing when blended with the remaining ingredients.
- Gently toss the pasta salad to mix. Tossing the ingredients with the dressing helps keep your beautiful noodles intact.
- Add the olive oil slowly to the dressing. Drizzle the olive oil into the dressing mixture slowly to give it ample time to emulsify and get wonderfully creamy.
What to Serve with This Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
This pasta salad’s bright and deep flavors make it a great side for your favorite summertime recipes. Pair with burgers, wraps, grilled foods, and more to create a well-rounded meal or spread for your guests. Some of my favorite pairings include:
How to Store Avocado Pasta Salad
For maximum freshness, refrigerate this pasta salad immediately in an air-tight container and never leave it sitting out for an extended period of time.
How long will avocado pasta salad last in the fridge?
Your pasta salad will remain fresh for up to two days in the refrigerator when stored in an air-tight container.
Frequently asked questions
Don’t skip the lemon juice when making the dressing for the pasta salad. It plays an important role in helping delay the oxidizing process of the pasta. You can also squeeze some fresh lemon juice after you toss the salad.
Pasta salads tend to absorb dressings, especially creamy ones like avocado. To refresh, stir in a little extra olive oil or squeeze of lemon juice before serving.
If the dressing feels too thick, gradually add a bit more almond milk until you reach the desired consistency. It should be creamy but pourable.
This avocado pasta salad is so easy to throw together. I love all the fresh and feel good ingredients that go into this salad. It feels very bright and light and the perfect summer salad to take along with you to a picnic. Everyone will find it refreshing to enjoy a pasta salad made with avocado, instead of the usual mayonnaise. Talk about feel good food with good-for-you fats!
More pasta salad recipes
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Caprese Pasta Salad
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Spinach Pasta Salad
- Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
- Asian Noodle Salad
If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Avocado Pasta Salad recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
Avocado Pasta Salad
Video
Ingredients
- 12 ounces rotini pasta or other short cut pasta
- 1 avocado peeled, stone and chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 cup frozen corn thawed
- Fresh basil for serving
Dressing
- 2 avocados peeled and cored
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions but reduce cooking time by 2 minutes so pasta is al dente; drain well. You can thaw the frozen corn in the pasta cooking water in the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time.
- To make the avocado dressing, combine the avocados, spinach, almond milk, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic to a blender or food processor. Season with salt and pepper. With the motor running, add olive oil slowly until dressing is emulsified, smooth and creamy.
- In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the dressing, tomatoes, corn and avocados. Garnish with fresh basil and serve immediately.
Equipment
Notes
- Instead of almond milk, you can use any other plant-based milk or regular milk or leave out the milk all together.
- Instead of spinach, you can use kale, arugula, parsley, cilantro or basil. You can also omit the greens if you’d like.
- To make this gluten-free, use any type of gluten-free pasta you’d like and cook it al dente.
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
This is a Great Salad. Thank You. I am vegan and do not eat oil. I omitted it. Nobody missed it.
Thank you! That’s great!
Delicious. I used spinach and arugula in the dressing. Added extra lemon juice and used lemon flavored olive oil. I also quartered the tomatoes and added extra with a can of white beans and a half red onion chopped. Used basil parsley and cilantro to finish.
Thank you! That sounds lovely!
Amazing! i did it with a spinach pesto I already had in the fridge, super tasty with the mix of cherry tomates, avocado and corn!
thank you!
Yay! Love that idea! So glad you enjoyed it!
I loved it. I did add a little plain yogurt to the dressing. I didnt have any almond milk. The pasta salad was great. I also added some olives and salmon to my leftovers..family loved it.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe and I think the dressing substitute you made works perfect. Thanks so much!
My son would like to take this for his school lunch. Will it turn black within 5 hours after making it?
No, 5 hours it totally fine!
Delicious!!!!!! Thank you so much for this recipe!!!!
Yay! So happy to hear you liked the recipe!!!