BLT Pasta Salad with Avocado and Ranch

BLT Pasta Salad is loaded with crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a secretly nutritious Greek yogurt ranch dressing. Serve as a meal or side and watch it disappear!

BLT pasta salad is a giant bowl of bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado tossed with pasta and creamy Greek yogurt ranch dressing. It's perfect as a meal on its own, or as a side dish for summer picnics! It's easy to make and always disappears!

Need more picnic salads? Grab this healthy macaroni salad, loaded baked potato salad, Asian slaw recipe, or quick coleslaw.

Key ingredients

• rotini spiral pasta - or any pasta
• lettuce - use romaine or iceberg lettuce, or a combo of both
• tomatoes - cherry tomatoes are my fav, but any will work
• bacon - use precooked, crumbled bacon or make your own
• onion - I prefer red onions but you can use any variety
• avocado - adds a nutty richness that always wins with bacon
• ranch dressing - I used my Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing but you can use any ranch you like

How to make BLT Pasta Salad

1. Cook pasta. (get Instant Pot instructions in recipe below)
2. Rinse with cool water, drain, and set aside.
3. Make the dressing in a small bowl.
4. To serve, place pasta in a large bowl with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and onion.
5. Drizzle ranch dressing over the salad ingredients. Toss gently and serve.

Recipe tips for success

Pasta: Always rinse the cooked pasta in cold water when it's finished cooking. This stops it cooking, cools it down, and removes excess starch. Also, chill it before using it with pasta salad.

Lettuce: You can prep it a day or two before serving, just be sure to air dry the lettuce completely before storing it in the fridge.

Bacon: Cook bacon a day or two in advance to avoid extra tasks the day of your event. Refrigerate it in an airtight container until ready to use.

Avocado: For optimal avocado freshness, I recommend waiting to dice the avocado until you're ready to dress and serve BLT salad.

Dressing: Feel free to serve this pasta salad with Avocado Ranch Dressing instead of the Greek yogurt ranch.

Storage tip: Keep all prepped ingredients separate from each other until you're ready to toss the salad together.

More salad recipes we love

• Dill Potato Salad
• Strawberry Salad
• Loaded Baked Potato Salad
• Broccoli Bacon Salad
• Lemony Kale Salad

BLT Pasta Salad Recipe

BLT Pasta Salad is loaded with crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a secretly nutritious Greek yogurt ranch dressing. Serve as a meal or side and watch it disappear!

5 from 11 votes

Print Pin

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 8 1-cup servings

Author: Traci The Kitchen Girl

Equipment

• ▢
  chef's knife
• ▢
  cutting board
• ▢
  measuring cups
• ▢
  salad spinner
• ▢
  serving bowl
• ▢
  serving utensils

INGREDIENTS

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 cups Spiral Pasta, uncooked
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Sea Salt, add this to pasta water
• ▢ 1 head Romaine Lettuce, chopped (about 4 cups)
• ▢ 2 cups Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• ▢ ½ pound Bacon, cooked and crumbled
• ▢ ½ medium Red Onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• ▢ 1 Avocado, about 1 cups diced
• ▢ ½ cup Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing, or bottled Ranch dressing

Instructions

 

• Cook PASTA according to package instructions (See Instant Pot instructions in recipe footnotes).
• Drain pasta, rinse to cool, and set aside.
• Place pasta in a large bowl with BACON, LETTUCE, TOMATO, ONION, and AVOCADO.
• Drizzle RANCH DRESSING over the pasta salad. Toss gently to combine and serve chilled.

Tried this recipe? I'd love your review!Visit the comments below and tell me how it went.

Traci's Recipe Notes

Nutrition information does not include the data for Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing. Please refer to that recipe.

Instant Pot instructions to cook pasta

1. Add PASTA and 4 cups WATER to the Instant Pot. Push pasta under the liquid to submerge.
2. Secure lid, turn pressure valve to "Sealing", and select "Manual" or "Pressure Cook" on HIGH for 2 minutes (for ditalini, elbow macaroni, or rotini spirals) or 1 minute (for thinner "shell" pasta).
3. When cook cycle completes, allow a FULL 10-minute natural pressure release (NPR). Don't rush this...the pasta is still cooking.
4. Turn pressure valve to "Venting" to release any remaining steam. Press "Cancel".
5. Continue with #2 instructions above.

NUTRITION

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 303kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 456mg | Potassium: 481mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 3035IU | Vitamin C: 17mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition data provided as courtesy estimates using unbranded ingredients from a nutrition database. Please consult preferred resource for precise data.

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