Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad. This creamy, cold pasta salad is bursting with fresh ingredients like tomatoes, broccoli, crisp bacon, cheddar, olives and red onions. The ranch-mayo dressing is the perfect balance to provide flavor and creaminess without overpowering the other ingredients. Even my pasta/potato salad-hating husband likes this one (maybe it's the bacon? the key to every man's heart, according to the Costco receipt checker I like to think of this pasta salad as the triple threat.
This Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad might have a little edge on the tuna salad because it is loaded with bacon and ranch seasoning.
I love cold pasta salads and this creamy bacon cheddar ranch pasta salad is amongst my favs.
I mean can you really go wrong with bacon, cheddar and ranch??
You can have Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad using 11 ingredients and 4 steps. Here is how you cook that.
Ingredients of Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad
- You need 3 cups of bow-tie pasta, uncooked.
- You need 2/3 cup of cheddar cheese crumbles.
- You need 6 slices of cooked bacon, diced.
- You need 2-3 of small tomatoes, seeded & diced.
- It's 2/3 cup of fresh broccoli, chopped.
- It's 2/3 cup of red onions, diced.
- You need 1/3 cup of black olives.
- You need 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.
- You need 1/2 cup of creamy ranch dressing.
- Prepare 1 clove of garlic, minced.
- You need 1/2-1 teaspoon of oregano.
The fresh onions, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli and olives really makes this pasta salad pops. Chicken pasta salad bursting with cheddar, bacon, and ranch! This easy pasta salad is going to be the hit of your next barbecue! I think I'm I mean, this is a bacon cheddar ranch pasta salad with bits of juicy chicken inside.
Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad step by step
- Cook pasta until al dente. Be careful not overcook. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water until pasta is cool. Add drained pasta to a large bowl. Add in the bacon, broccoli, red onions, black olives, and tomatoes. essing in with the pasta mixture until well coated..
- Toss to combine. (you may need to add a tiny bit of water to moisten the pasta if it's too sticky to toss) In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, ranch dressing, garlic and oregano. When ready to serve, mix the dressing.
- Serve immediately..
- Notes- when I made this I was low on ingredients so I substitute it for lettuce, and my kids don’t black olives so I left it out. I just used ranch because I have no mayo....
Obviously, I need to be making this year round. Serve each plate of pasta with more bacon. This pasta salad is made with ranch dressing instead (even lite ranch tastes great in this recipe). This pasta salad is so easy and quick to make you'll love adding it to your menus. While this recipe is absolutely delicious cold, you can certainly microwave the bowl and serve it warm for dinner too.