This Mexican Pasta Salad needs to make an appearance at your next grill out. A fun textured pasta + fresh crunchy veggies + black beans + a kick butt sauce!
This Mexican Pasta Salad makes my dreams come true: Mexican spices, pasta, black beans, corn…ugh! Yes!
I love, love, love everything about summer, but honestly my favorite thing is the food, especially grilling out. But while most people are anxiously awaiting the hot dogs and burgers hot off the grill…I’m already chowing down on all the side dishes and desserts.
Move over grilling season…I’ve decided this summer is the season of Mexican Pasta Salad!
Trevor and I are so lucky to live right by the courtyard of our apartment complex. We literally walk outside and are just steps away from the grill. Last summer, Trevor and I did an amazing job of getting out there as much as we could. We probably grilled out 4 days of the week!
We made everything from kebabs, salmon, more hot dogs than I’d care to admit, and even tuna. Alongside all of those, however, were my beloved side dishes: potato salad, chips, grilled veggies, and, of course, pasta salad.
My obsession with pasta salad actually began on the 4th of July last year when we went over to a friend’s house for a party. It was kind of a free-for-all on the food, so Trevor and I made sure to bring all of our favorites. We brought stuffed burgers, plenty of chips, and Trevor picked up some pre-made potato and pasta salad.
Previously, I had never been a fan of potato and pasta salad, so I kind of turned up my nose to the salads. Little did I know that only a few short hours later, I’d be licking the bottom of the plastic containers clean.
Ever since, I’ve been obsessed…which brings us to this Mexican Pasta Salad.
Originally, I was going to make more of a traditional pasta salad, but then I remembered my mom making a tex-mexy-ish pasta salad growing up… I think? Or maybe I just had a dream about it.
Either way, I knew I wanted to make a twist on a classic.
I placed Picante (it’s like less chunky salsa), mayo, sour cream, a bunch of spices, and some lime juice into my food processor
. I pulsed the mixture until it was combined and this amazing sauce was born.
I tossed the sauce together with cooked rotini, red and green bell peppers, black beans, and corn and had to slap Trevor’s hand away to stop him from eating the whole batch. Ok fine. I was slapping my own hand away, because Trevor wasn’t home.
Ugh. I can’t even blame Trevor for helping me eat most of it! 😉
I placed the Mexican Pasta Salad into the fridge and let it chill for about two hours.
Ohhhh. Emmmm. Geeee.
It was good when it was still warm, but holy guacamole (I can’t believe I said that) it blew me away after the flavors had a chance to really meld in the fridge and the rotini had a chance to soak up all that yummy, smoky, garlicky sauce.
I love that this Mexican Pasta Salad still has familiar flavors of traditional pasta salad, like the mayo and bell peppers, but I love even more that this pasta salad isn’t overwhelmed by the mayo and is complimented by sour cream, fresh lime juice, cumin, chili powder, and more!
I mean. I can’t even tell you how much I love this Mexican Pasta Salad.
A fun textured pasta + crunchy, fresh veggies + black beans + a kick butt sauce = Jennifer in a food coma after eating half the batch…with her fingers.
IT’S SO GOOOOOD.
– Jennifer
What’s your favorite grilling side dish? Show me the yummy!
- 1 (16 oz) jar picante sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup Sour cream
- 1 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1 (16 oz) box rotini pasta cooked al dente according to package directions
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans rinsed and drained
- 1 (15 oz) can sweet corn drained
- 1/4 cup red bell pepper diced
- 1/4 cup green bell pepper diced
- Cilantro optional as a garnish
- Combine sauce ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and re-season as necessary.
- Combine cooked (and drained) pasta, black beans, corn, and bell peppers in a large bowl.
- Toss with sauce, cover (or place in large tupperware), and chill in the fridge for at least two hours, or overnight.
- Serve cold!
The sauce will be extremely runny right after you make it, but will thicken and adhere to the pasta as it chills in the fridge!
Want to make this gluten free? Be sure to use a gluten free pasta!
WANT. That looks fantastic! So many pasta salads are too oily for my liking (and once you get near the bottom of the bowl…yikes!), so I’m stoked to see this version, which is both oil-free AND inspired by Mexican flavors – my favorite!
Thank you 🙂 Mexican flavors are my favorite! Happy Friday! 🙂
That looks soooo delicious 😋
Thank you!
I made this last night for supper to go along with a mexican cassorol. It was very good and my family loved it. I will be making this one again. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much!
I would like to make this but I am not sure what picante sauce is. What brand do you use? Picante sauce to me is just hot sauce. But that seems like way too much hot sauce to put in there. So any suggestions on what brand to buy would be awesome. 😊 thank you.
Hi Bernadette! It’s basically a smooth salsa. I love Pace Picante. You can find it in the salsa aisle 🙂 Does that help? 🙂
I started with the sauce and a full jar of Pace just seemed to be too runny so I modified. I added an 8oz block of cream cheese – half immediately into the sauce with other seasonings and the remaining added to the blender with half of a jalapeño. After that was blended it was also added to the sauce. I chopped up the remaining jalapeño, and 1/3 of a red onion…. PERFECT! Oh, by the way, also grilled the corn on the stove with a little Mexican chili powder before adding. The flavors are AWESOME! My new favorite pasta dish for potluck
Love it! Even though the sauce is runny, the rotini really sucks it all up! Glad your changes worked though! 🙂 They sound delish!
This sounds delicious, but I’m not able to eat mayonnaise. Could I use plain Greek yogurt instead?
You’ll lose some of the flavor/creaminess, but yes, greek yogurt should work!
I just made this for my family’s Easter get-together. You weren’t kidding about the sauce! I licked the lid of the food processor! It’s super good. I didn’t think it would be THAT good, but it is. Had to stop myself from eating the whole batch of pasta after it was all put together….I hope there are leftovers after my family tries it, but I doubt it! Thank you for a great recipe and I’ll definitely be making this again!
Haha thank you so much Kelly!! 🙂
This is pretty good! The sauce reminds me a lot of a southwest ranch. Chefs beware, this recipe serves like 50 😂 I’m not sure how I ended up with so much
So glad you liked this! 🙂