Taco Pasta Salad

Our easy Taco Pasta Salad has seasoned ground turkey, pasta, cheese, a variety of vegetables and black beans, all tossed in a zesty-sweet dressing. Top with fried tortilla strips for extra crunch.

A Delicious Menu Idea for Taco Night!

Our Taco Pasta Salad is an easy and delicious option to serve your family on Taco Tuesday, at game day parties and neighborhood pot lucks, or any time you simply want a tasty, filling meal with a Tex-Mex flair!

To make our Taco Pasta Salad, we simply cooked ground turkey along with taco seasoning. Then, we mixed it with cooked pasta, grape tomatoes, and black beans – plus a variety of different taco toppings including shredded cheese, red onion, chopped peppers, cilantro, and pickled jalapeños.

The entire pasta salad is tossed with a combination of Catalina dressing and taco sauce. For a little extra crunch, we sprinkled tortilla strips on top.

• It has delicious Tex-Mex flavors in every bite, and both kids and grown-ups love this salad!
• This salad is super simple to prepare and it’s a filling meal all in one.
• You can easily change the ingredients to suit your tastes – with different cheese, meats, and toppings.

• Ground Turkey – You can swap in ground beef if you prefer, but we liked the softer texture of cooked ground turkey for this salad. We chose a 85/15 ratio of ground turkey to fat.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Water
• Taco Seasoning – You’ll need approximately one-quarter cup of taco seasoning. Make our homemade taco seasoning recipe or buy a bulk jar of taco seasoning or several packets.  
• Pasta – We liked the curly Cellentani pasta (also known as Cavatappi under a different brand name), but you can use any medium-sized pasta shapes such as Farfalle (bowtie) or seashells.
• Tomatoes – Choose cherry or grape tomatoes. They will be cut in half before adding to the salad.
• Cheese – Buy a combination of Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese for this recipe. We specifically chose orange cheddar for contrasting color in the salad.
• Red Onion
• Green Bell Pepper – You can swap in red, orange, or yellow bell pepper if that’s what you have on hand, but we especially liked the sharper flavor of the green pepper in this salad.
• Canned Black Beans
• Fresh Cilantro Leaves
• Pickled Jalapeño Slices –We chose mild jalapeños, but you can add the hot variety if you like things extra spicy. Or swap in sliced hot cherry peppers or zesty pepperoncini.
• Tortilla Strips – Buy a bag of premade cooked tortilla strips, usually found in the produce section or where Mexican ingredients are found in a supermarket.
• Dressing – We used a combination of Catalina Dressing and Taco Sauce to dress our salad – and we felt that the combination of the sweeter dressing and zesty sauce gave the salad a nice, balanced flavor. You can make your own Catalina dressing following this recipe and a homemade Taco Sauce following this recipe. Or, buy store-bought versions for convenience.

1. Brown the ground turkey in olive oil, add water and taco seasoning and simmer for five minutes.
2. Cook the pasta, then drain, rinse and cool.
3. Mix the cooked and drained pasta with the seasoned cooked turkey plus all of the various vegetables.  
4. Combine Catalina Dressing with Taco Sauce and mix into the salad.
5. Serve with the tortilla strips over the top.

• Can I make Taco Pasta Salad ahead of time?  Yes, this can be made in advance, chilled, and served cold, at room temperature, or reheated.
• How do I store leftovers?  Cover and store refrigerated for up to three days. Note that some of the dressing may absorb into the pasta – feel free to add more dressing and taco sauce if you’d like.
• How do I reheat leftovers? Serve cold or reheat in the microwave to warm through.

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