Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad
This Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad is the perfect cold pasta salad for potlucks, parties, or a quick and easy meal. It can be made in advance and your friends and family will love this pasta salad recipe!
I teamed up with Kroger to share this delicious Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad. As always, all opinions are my own.
We LOVE making and eating pasta salads during the hot summer months because they don’t require much cooking, you only have to cook the pasta, which only takes about 10 minutes. Plus, pasta salads can be made ahead of time. It’s great having one in the fridge for easy lunches and dinners.
So far, this summer, this Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad has been my go-to for taking to BBQ’s, potlucks, and parties. When we are invited to a BBQ or dinner party, I’m often asked to bring a pasta salad. And when I bring one, I want it to be a GOOD one so everyone will love it. You want your pasta salad to be the one that everyone is raving about and the one that is gone by the end of the dinner.
If you are looking for the BEST pasta salad to make and take to parties this summer, make this Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad. Your family and friends will LOVE it!
Quick and Easy Pasta Salad
It is SO good and SO easy to make! Not only is it a cinch to throw together, but it’s super clean. I found all of the ingredients at my local Kroger and used my OptUP app to make the best ingredient choices.
Have you heard of the OptUP app? Check out this post to learn more about it. Basically, you can take advantage of thousands of products rated on overall nutrition, enabling you to find “better for you” options throughout the store based on recent purchases. Your household dashboard allows you to see how you are doing with each shopping trip and gives ways you can improve the healthfulness of your cart over time. The ultimate goal is to help take the guesswork out of purchasing the most nutritious items, making it easier for you to eat and live well. All of the ingredients in this salad will do wonders for your OptUP score!
I love the Southwest inspired flavors in this pasta salad:
- tomatoes
- black beans
- corn
- jalapeño
- parsley
- cilantro
- lemon
The jalapeño pesto is seriously so good and really pulls all of the flavors together. It is light and refreshing, which makes this salad perfect for summertime. If you don’t want to take the time to make your own pesto, feel free to use a store bought variety.
Tips for Making Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad:
- Rotini pasta works best in this recipe. I love how the pesto gets stuck in all of the nooks and crannies of the spiral shape! However, bowtie or even penne will also work well.
- Cook the pasta, drain it, and rinse with cold water, and drain again, making sure you shake off all of the water. This is a cold pasta salad. Plus, I always rinse my pasta with cold water to stop the pasta from continuing to cook.
- While the pasta is cooking, chop up and prepare all of the other ingredients, including the pesto.
- You can make this pasta salad in advance. In fact, it’s even tastier after letting all of the flavors marry for about 30 minutes. The pasta salad will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, but I bet it won’t last that long.
- If you want to bulk up the salad, you can add chopped chicken, diced avocado and/or feta cheese.
- Feel free to use halved cherry or grape tomatoes rather than whole tomatoes.
I have a feeling this Southwest Pasta Salad is going to be a summer staple at your house, I know we are going to make it all summer long! Enjoy! And be sure to check out the Wellness Your Way site for more healthy summer recipes, tips and more!
IF YOU LIKE THIS PASTA SALAD RECIPE, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Tuscan Pasta Salad from The Recipe Critic
Easy Greek Pasta Salad from Oh Sweet Basil
Healthy Cherry Almond Broccoli Salad
Southwest Jalapeño Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Pasta salad
- ½ pound (8 ounces) whole grain bow-tie pasta or rotini or penne (use gluten-free pasta, if needed)
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans
- 2 medium (about 10 ounces) tomatoes, diced
- ½ cup fresh, canned or frozen corn kernels
Jalapeño pesto
- 1 cup lightly packed fresh parsley
- 1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
- 2 small jalapeños with seeds and membranes removed
- 1 medium lemon, juiced
- 1 medium garlic clove, halved
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup raw whole pine nuts or slivered almonds
- 1/3 cup avocado or olive oil
- Ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, according to package directions. Before draining, reserve about a cup of cooking water. Drain and return to pot. Set aside.
- While pasta is cooking, make the pesto: combine all pesto ingredients in a food processor. Run the machine until mixture is well blended, stopping and scraping down the bowl as necessary.
- Pour enough pesto into the pasta to lightly coat it once tossed (you might not quite need all of it). Add a small splash of pasta cooking water and toss well. Transfer the pasta to a large serving bowl and add the drained black beans, diced tomatoes, and corn. Stir until combined. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. This salad is best after it’s had a chance to marinate for about 30 minutes, but you can serve it right away if need be.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I love a good pasta salad. I never would of thought to add pesto let alone jalapenos before, i really like the idea of it.
It looks delicious. I love pasta a lot and this pasta salad is my next target to make. Thanks for sharing.
I love pesto salad and adding jalapenos would be interesting… it will be hot but that’s the fun of it, right? Delicious!
I think this all looks amazing. I would love to try this out. Although maybe I will adjust with a few less tomatoes for my daughter. She doesn’t really like them much. But I love it.
I love the addition of jalapenos – nothing like a bit of kick in a pasta salad!
I can’t handle spice so i’d probably go without jalapeno but i love the idea of a pasta salad!
I’m all in for fresh cilantro here. Pesto and pasta is match made in heaven, can never go wrong. On a hot Sunday afternoon, with some BBQ going on and this pasta on the side, perfect!
Can’t go wrong with pesto. Love this spicy twist!
Yup, and now I’m headed to the kitchen, lol! I love Jalapenos and Pasta salad, I don’t know why I haven’t tried a combo like this!
Oooo, this sounds wonderfully refreshing for the summer heat. I’m into salads and light lunches at the moment. I love the addition of a few beans, I imagine that makes it a little more filling!
Pesto is seriously one of my most favorite things to add to food, and jalapeños ARE my favorite food so this is a perfect combo for me!
I totally agree – pesto always adds such great flavor! You will love this!
This is a great idea for a healthy dish for the office! I am making it asap!
Yes, it’s a great make-ahead meal! Hope you love it!
That is a very beautiful salad right there. And the ingredients sound right together. I love pasta salads and this is one to try. 😀 You just gave me a great idea for our Sunday salad. 5 stars for this! 😀
I make this regularly with some chicken pieces or shrimp too. I prefer my pasta hot not cold, even in boiling hot summer, yes. Lol.
It probably wasn’t a good idea to look at this right before dinner! Anything with pesto– sign me up!
Funnily enough I had a pesto pasta salad earlier (although it was red pesto) but your jalapeno version looks even more delicious so I would love to be able to try it. And it is perfect for this hot summer weather we have been having as well!
This looks perfect for summer BBQ’s! I love pasta salads and definitely love anything with cilantro in it! Not too sure about the jalapenos though because I don’t really like spicy foods.
Thanks so much! Feel free to just add one jalapeño and take out all of the seeds before adding it. It won’t have very much spice at all this way. Hope you get a chance to give it a try!
Yummy! Does the Jalapeno make it pretty spicy? I’m such a wuss when it comes to spice, but my husband LOVES it. The spicier the better! Can’t wait to try it out!
If you take out the seeds of the jalapeño it’s really not very spicy. For more spice, leave them in and/or add another jalapeño. Hope you get a chance to give it a try!
That sounds like a fantastic idea for a recipe. I love jalapenos so add them to all sorts but never thought to make a pesto with them. This could son become my favourite meal, yum!
I’ve never made a pesto with cilantro before! Such a great idea 🙂
The flavours in this are insane! I’m going to meal prep this with your suggestion for bulking it up .
Great! Hope you enjoy!
I love all the flavors in here with the jalapeno and corn pairing! What a wonderful picnic side dish.
Thanks! And, yes, it’s perfect for picnics!
Man, that jalapeno pesto looks incredible!! I can imagine how this pasta salad would be packed full of flavour!
This is definitely a great way to take your pasta salad up a notch! I love spicy food so we will for sure be trying this this summer!
YUM!! I love pasta salad! It’s such a perfect summer dish. And the jalapeno gives it a perfect kick!