Rainbow Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

Despite a mini hiatus, I’m finally back into the swing of things here on the blog and ready to share one of our family favourite summer recipes, Rainbow Pasta Salad. Soon, this will be your go-to for backyard barbecues, camping or just for a hot summer day where you don’t want to heat up the house.

Rainbow Pasta Salad – Flavour Packed

This was one of my dads favourite salads; there wouldn’t be many summer days where Rainbow Pasta Salad couldn’t be found in the fridge at the cabin and for good reason. This salad is jam packed with delicious crisp garden vegetables, rotini and leftover cooked ham for a perfect side dish or cold lunch.

It’s best to leave refrigerated for a day or two before serving, allowing the Italian dressing to marinate into the pasta and veggies which makes it a perfect make ahead salad for camping, summer barbecues on the deck or just for a weekday quick lunch. The salt of the ham is a perfect addition to Rainbow Pasta Salad, complimenting the tang of the Italian dressing.

This Rainbow Pasta Salad recipe makes enough for 8-10, depending if you are eating as a side or a main dish and keeps in the fridge for up to a week. It’s best in the first 5 days to keep the crispness of the cucumbers. Cubed cheddar cheese can also be added to this recipe but I would add as you dish out the salad to avoid soggy cheese.

FOLLOW FOR MORE

If you like this summer salad recipe, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Please check out my other recipes and I’d love if you’d pin it for later on Pinterest or follow along for other great recipes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Try these other summer recipes:

• Raspberry Pomegranate Salad with Creamy Poppyseed Dressing
• Broccoli Salad with Bacon
• Party Chicken Pasta Salad Recipe
• Potato Egg Salad
• Honey Dijon Beet and Egg Salad
• Honey Roasted Root Vegetables with Butternut Squash
• One Pan Garlic Sausage and Roasted Vegetables
• Roasted Vegetables: Radishes with Thyme and Sea Salt
• Campfire French Toast
• Campfire Recipes: Egg & Nutella S’mores
• Campfire Spinach Dip in Spaghetti Squash

Rainbow Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

 

Save Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

6 mins

Total time

21 mins

 

Author: Stacey Martin

Recipe type: Side

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 4 cups rotini pasta (uncooked)
• 1 English cucumber
• 1 red bell pepper
• ¼ red onion
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 2 cups cooked ham, cut into cubes
• Dressing...
• ¾ cup Olive Oil
• ¼ cup vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp parsely
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. In a large pot, cook pasta by roiling boil for 6 minutes (until cooked but still firm); remove from heat, drain and fill with cold water until pasta is cold. Drain completely and pour pasta into a large bowl.
2. Wash all vegetables, cut cucumber into ¼" slices then quarter for larger pieces/half for smaller. Remove stem, seeds and devein red pepper, cutting into bite size chunks. Slice red onion thinly. Place all into the bowl with the pasta and fold over until mixed.
3. Dressing: Whisk all ingredients together and pour over pasta salad mix, folding pasta over into itself until thoroughly mixed through. Cover and place in the fridge for a minimum of a 3 hours, preferably overnight, before serving.
4. Keep refrigerated up to a week.

Notes

Precook a ham for another meal cutting leftover ham into cube chunks (2 cups each recipe) and freeze until you are making the Rainbow Pasta Salad. Thaw ham in the bag in cool water or the fridge overnight (do not use microwave), beforehand. You can also do this to use in a Perogy Casserole (located on the thislilpiglet.net blog) for a quick 30 minute weekday comfort food style meal.

Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

3.5.3218