BLT Pasta Salad is a scrumptious pasta salad that always wins! It's made with crispy bacon, crisp lettuce, tomato, avocado, and a secretly nutritious ranch dressing. Serve BLT pasta salad at any event and watch it literally disappear!
BLT pasta salad with avocado and ranch
This pasta salad...it's like a giant bowl of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches tossed together with avocado, pasta, and creamy ranch dressing! It's super easy, secretly nutritious, and guaranteed to please any crowd.
BLT Pasta Salad 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 - we love to use crumbled bacon from Costco
- onion - red, white, or yellow onion...any will work
- 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
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How to make BLT Pasta Salad
- Cook pasta. Rinse with cool water, drain, and set aside.
- Make the ranch dressing in a small bowl.
- To serve, place pasta in a large bowl with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and onion.
- Drizzle ranch dressing over the salad ingredients. Toss gently and serve.
How to cook pasta in the Instant Pot
- Add pasta and enough water to cover the pasta, along with 1/2 tsp salt to the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid, set pressure valve to “sealing”.
- Pressure cook on HIGH for 2 minutes.
- Allow the cooker to sit, undisturbed, for a 10-minute natural pressure release.
- Release excess steam (if any) by carefully turning pressure release valve to “venting”, then cool-water rinse and drain the pasta, and refrigerate until ready to use.
BLT pasta salad recipe tips
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 the pasta before using it for this 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 your 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
Serving tip: Keep all prepped ingredients separate from each other until you're ready to toss the salad together. Think of it as a sacred wedding day, because this pasta salad is...exactly that!
More SALAD RECIPES from Kitchen Girl
Kitchen Tools
- chef knife
- cutting board
- salad spinner (to wash leafy produce)
- large salad bowl
More pasta salads to love
- Macaroni Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing
- Tortellini Pesto Pasta Salad
- Italian Pasta Salad [Dairy-Free]
- Pesto Macaroni Pasta Salad
Easy summer salad recipes
- How to Make THE BEST Potato Salad
- Loaded Baked Potato Salad
- Asian Quinoa Slaw Salad with Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette
- Broccoli Bacon Grape Blue Cheese Salad
- Lemony Kale Salad with Chickpeas and Avocado
BLT Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Spiral Pasta, uncooked
- ½ tsp Kosher Salt, add this to pasta water
- 4-6 cups Romaine Lettuce, chopped
- 2 cups Cherry Tomatoes, halved
- ½ lb Bacon, cooked and crumbled
- ½ small Red Onion, diced
- 1 Avocado, about 1 cups diced
- ½ cup Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing, or bottled Ranch dressing
Instructions
- Cook PASTA using package instructions; rinse, drain, and set aside. * See Instant Pot pasta cooking instructions in recipe footnotes.
- 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.
To make-ahead, prep each ingredient and store separately until ready to dress.
Recipe Notes from TKG
- Add pasta and enough water to cover the pasta, along with 1/2 tsp salt to the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid, set pressure valve to “sealing”.
- Pressure cook on HIGH for 2 minutes.
- Allow the cooker to sit, undisturbed, for a 10-minute natural pressure release.
- Release excess steam (if any) by carefully turning pressure release valve to “venting”, then cool-water rinse and drain the pasta, and refrigerate until ready to use.
Nutrition
Nutrition data provided as courtesy estimates using unbranded ingredients from a nutrition database. Please consult preferred resource for precise data.
Patricia Ciapciak says
We LOVED your BLT Pasta Salad! It is absolutely DELICIOUS. Your recipes are THE BEST and easy to modify for many allergies! THANKS SO MUCH, Kitchen Girl!!
The Kitchen Girl says
Aww thank you, Pat!! I'm so glad you've been with me through the years and are enjoying my contribution to the recipe realm ❤️
Farah says
All my favorite flavors in one pasta salad, this is inspired! BLT sandwich but so much more elevated. Can't wait to try this Traci! Thank you for the gorgeous recipe.
Traci Antonovich says
Aww, thank you for the kind words, Farah. Yes, you will LOVE the BLT salad version of the sandwich 🙂