With summer in full swing, we’ve all probably had plenty of time to gather with our family members for backyard cookouts and barbecues. While the classic foods for these get togethers include burgers and hot dogs, having plenty of delicious side dishes is also pretty important. In this category, of us the classics include a juicy bowl of watermelon or a big bowl of chips with some dip on the side. Still, sometimes it pays to mix things up and make a recipe that your party guests might not be expecting.
The recipe we have for you today is actually a perfect summer-style side dish, particularly if you live in California. That’s right, we’re making a creamy avocado pasta which should take the place of whatever current pasta salad recipe you’re using. Once you put it all together, this recipe is creamy, savory and perfectly balanced to serve alongside any other. Though the basics of this recipe work well on their own, there’s also plenty of room to add in your own ingredients. So let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Pasta:
- 16 ounces of large shell pasta
- 1 diced avocado
- 1 1/2 cups of halved grape tomatoes
- 6 strips of thick bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 2 tablespoons of fresh basil, chopped
Dressing:
- 1 cup of Ranch dressing
- 1 avocado
- juice of one lime
- 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
Here’s what you do:
1. To start off, get a pot of water and set it over medium-high heat to bring it to a boil. Open up your bag of pasta and throw it in the water. Cook the pasts according the instructions on the bag, preferably al dente or close to it. Once it’s done, drain the pasta and run cold water over it to cool it off. Throw the cooked pasta in a big mixing bowl.
2. Next, throw your ranch, avocado, lime juice, chopped cilantro and quarter teaspoon of salt into a blender or a food processor. Mix everything up until it turns into a creamy and smooth dressing.
3. Once it’s done, pour the dressing over your pasta and toss everything up so that it’s evenly coated. At that point, you can also chop up your other avocado, grape tomatoes and bacon as well.
4. Finally, fold your additional dry ingredients into the bowl of pasta salad and mix until everything is roughly and evenly combined. Add additional salt and pepper to taste, as well as any extra lime juice you think is necessary. Pop the entire thing in the fridge for a while to cool off before serving!
As you can see, making this recipe is incredibly straightforward and contains plenty of undeniably delicious flavors. Pasta salad is good at any cookout but adding in bacon and creamy avocado dressing truly takes the entire thing to the next level. While the current recipe relies on some lime flavor to bring it to life, you could also go another direction by adding in some chopped olives and feta for a kind of Greek fusion. Ultimately, we leave the details up to you. Give this recipe a shot and let us know what you think!
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