A pasta salad with a flavor profile perfect for summertime.
Spice up traditional pasta salad with some smoky chipotle pepper and lime flavor. Keeping with the southwestern flavor theme, this pasta salad also calls for corn, black beans, adobo sauce, and chorizo sausage. It’s a simple side dish that would pair perfectly with backyard burgers or BBQ, but also makes a nice light dinner on those hot summer nights where warm food is too much of a chore.
Time You Need
- ~25 minutes prep
- Yields: ~8 servings
What You Need
- 1 ½ cups of cooked corn (fresh, frozen but thawed, or canned)
- 1 can of black beans, drained and dried
- ~12 ounces of either fusilli, farfalle, rotini, or elbow macaroni
- 1 chipotle in adobo sauce, diced
- 2 finely sliced pre-cooked spicy chorizo sausages
- ~3 tbsp adobo sauce
- 1 fresh lime (for squeezing)
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 tbsp basil (or dried Italian seasonings)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup plain mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
What You Do
- Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package.
- Once cooked, rinse pasta with cold water, and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Then add the sausages, beans, corn, chopped green onion, diced chipotle pepper. In a separate bowl, mix seasonings, honey, adobo sauce, freshly squeezed lime juice from the lime, mayo, vinegar, and olive oil to create the dressing. Whisk ingredients together.
- Add the dressing to the pasta bowl.
- Mix all ingredients together vigorously.
- Serve and enjoy or refrigerate and let flavors mix.