This easy Taco Pasta Salad is packed with bold Tex-Mex flavor, hearty enough for a main dish, and perfect for potlucks, cookouts, or quick weeknight meals.
Taco Pasta Salad. Call it strange. Call it familiar. Just call it delicious. It’s a GREAT summer pasta salad that’s actually pretty perfect any time of the year. And it’s full of amazing flavor… not to mention pretty dang easy, too!
This taco pasta salad recipe can really be customized to suit your tastes. Add sliced black olives. Ditch the tomatoes. Use fresh or even Mexican-style corn. Top with diced green onions. Once you have the basics down, you can customize it to make it your own. You could even make this into a one-dish meal by adding some diced or pulled rotisserie chicken or ground beef to up the protein. The options are nearly endless.
Can I Serve This Cold or Warm?
This is one of those flexible recipes that works either way. It’s typically served chilled after storing in the refrigerator, but you can serve at room temperature by chilling the pasta a little first by running it under some cool water. But if you prefer it a little warm, you can absolutely serve it that way. I just recommend being very careful not to add too much hot pasta to the other ingredients, or your cheese might melt more than you’d like when it’s time to stir it all together.
Will the avocados brown?
The lime juice will certainly delay the browning of the avocado, but browning will still happen, which does shorten the life of this salad. You could mix it all together and refrigerate and then add the avocados right before you serve it if you wish. This option would help your salad last much longer. You can also just leave them out completely if you wish.
Recipe Card
Taco Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 (1-pound) box rotini pasta
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 (1-ounce) packet taco seasoning
- 2 ripe avocados (diced)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 small red onion (finely diced)
- 1 1/2 cups Mexican blend shredded cheese
- 1 (15.25-ounce) whole kernel corn (drained)
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes (washed and sliced in half)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the pasta instructions to just al dente. Cool completely by running cool water over the pasta, then drain.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and taco seasoning. Set aside.
- Once the avocados are diced, toss them in the lime juice to prevent them from browning.
- Combine the pasta, avocados, onion, cheese, corn, beans, tomatoes, and cilantro in a large bowl. Add the dressing and mix to combine.
Nutrition
* If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
Phyllis
Stacey, this looks and sounds delish. I love a taco salad, and this one sounds even better than my standby taco salad recipe. As soon as we can entertain again (Go away, Covid!!!) I’ll be making this one for the crowd.
I sure hope y’all will enjoy it- whenever you finally get the chance! 🙂
Chris Leighty
Looks delicious and I am thinking of making for a cookout.However,if I leave out the avocados, do I also leave out the lime juice? Thanks
Yep, you can just leave both the avocado and the lime juice out.
Kari
Yum! This is the kind of dish that I would so dig into at a potluck!
Kari
https://sweetteasweetie.com/aged-cheddar-sliders-with-pineapple-guacamole/
Stacey English
Yum! This looks delicious. I believe I will make this for our Memorial Day get-together.