Southwest Pasta Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Submitted by Beamer42 on August 23, 2012 - 1:41pm
Southwest Pasta Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Summary

Yield
Prep Time30 minutes
CategoryPasta
CuisineAmerican

Description

The pasta salad is loaded with flavor. It has black beans, tomatoes, peppers, onion, sweet corn, avocado and cilantro. And the best part? The creamy avocado dressing. It is rich and creamy, but in a healthy kind of way. The dressing is easy to whip up, just throw all of the ingredients in your blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Ingredients

  • 8 oz pasta - Rotini
  • 15 oz black beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup grape tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup diced orange or yellow bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup finely diced onion
  • 1/2 cup sweet corn can use frozen
  • 1 large avocado peeled seeded and diced
  • 1 lime
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 DRESSING
  • 2 *ripe avocados peeled and seeded
  • 3 tbsp plain greek yogurt Chiobani
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped green onion
  • 1 small jalapeno pepper chopped and seeds removed
  • 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Salt the water and stir in the pasta.

Cook until al dente.

Rinse with cold water and set aside.

 While the pasta is cooking, make the Creamy Avocado Dressing.

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

In a large bowl, combine pasta, black beans, tomatoes, peppers, red onion, corn, and chopped avocado.

Pour dressing over pasta salad and stir until salad is well coated.

Season with salt and pepper.

Squeeze fresh lime juice over the salad, so the avocados don't brown.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve at room temperature or chilled.

Note-you may have leftover dressing, depending on how "dressed" you like your pasta salad.

If the dressing is too thick, add more buttermilk.

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