Creamy Cilantro Ranch Pasta Salad

Creamy Cilantro Ranch Pasta Salad is filled with spiral pasta noodles, black beans, corn, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and cubes of cheese with a super creamy (and yummy!) homemade cilantro ranch dressing.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword chicken pasta salad, cilantro ranch dressing, creamy cilantro ranch pasta salad, pasta salad recipes

Prep Time 25

Servings (1 cup) servings

Calories 282kcal

Author Jessica

Ingredients

Creamy Cilantro Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup full fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk low fat is fine
1/4 cup full fat sour cream
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon dried dill weed
½ teaspoon dried chives
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bunch cilantro
1 jalapeno (take out seeds for less heat)
juice of 1 lime about 1 tablespoon

Pasta Salad

1 box (16 oz) spiral pasta (like rotini or fusilli)
1 can (15 oz) black beans drained and rinsed well
1 can (15 oz) corn drained and rinsed well
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1 block (8 oz) Monterey Jack cheese cubed really small
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion more or less to taste

Instructions

Combine all ingredients for the cilantro ranch dressing into a blender. Blend until smooth and combined. Keep in fridge while you prepare the pasta salad.
* I only use half a jalapeno and I take the seeds out. If you want more heat then leave the seeds and use the entire jalapeno.
Cook pasta according to package directions. Don't forget to add about 1 teaspoon salt to the boiling water to flavor the pasta. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water.
Add drained pasta, black beans, corn, cherry tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese, and red onion into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
Add the sauce into the pasta salad and stir. If wanted, reserve some of the dressing (about 2 tablespoons or so) to moisten refrigerated leftovers.
Serve immediately or refrigerate for 1-3 hours before serving. Leftovers are fabulous, but as with any pasta salad the pasta soaks up most the dressing once refrigerated for hours. Just add in a couple tablespoons of reserved dressing and stir to moisten back up.

Notes

If you want more dressing or more for later to re-moisten the leftovers then 1 1/2 times the dressing recipe. This will yield closer to 2 cups of cilantro ranch dressing. Here are the measurements.

3/4 cup mayo

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup sour cream

3/4 teaspoon of each of the spices, and salt

heaping 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

heaping 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

leave the jalapeno, cilantro, and lime juice the same

If wanted, feel free to not make the homemade cilantro ranch dressing and instead use any bottled dressing you love. You will need about 1 1/4 cups of dressing, more or less to taste.

Nutrition