Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

Bacon ranch pasta salad is brimming with bacon, olives, tomatoes and peppers.  

We’ve added Kidney beans for fiber and low-fat protein. And a spot of color.

This creamy pasta salad recipe has lots of great flavor. The creamy dressing includes Dry ranch mix and a creamy garlic spread. This addition brings in richness and depth to the flavor profile.

Multi colored Bow tie pasta is just the right size for a fork and holds that dressing well.

This ranch pasta salad has a wonderful smorgasbord of flavors. The bacon, ranch dressing and pasta blend provide a good base for many varied ingredients.

A large pasta salad like this one is easy to hold in the fridge for several days for a quick bite of sustaining carbs and healthy fresh veggies when you don’t have time to fool with lunch.

Bacon, olives and kidney beans and the ranch style dressing add flavor and texture to the cute bow tie pasta.

The grape tomatoes add wonderful pops of color and the peppers (any kind you like in all sorts of colors) make this a festive harvest dish with a satisfying crunch from the peppers.

Looking for MORE Pasta Salads?

Here’s a few of our favorites. Add even more protein to your ranch pasta salad with Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta salad recipe. It makes a complete dinner or lunch replacement.

Italian pasta salad is a yummy filling salad with lots of healthy greens and a delicious oil dressing.

And if you need a wonderful salad that holds well at room temperature and is very popular at parties our Mediterranean pasta salad is just the thing.

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad Recipe:

Bacon Ranch Pasta salad is very filling. Fortunately it will hold several days in the fridge. Make it for lunch or a heavy side with a light entre. It’s also very popular at pot lucks, barbecues and parties.

Just remember this salad mush be served cold at fridge temperatures for food safety!

TIP:

Keep the bacon thick cut and a high quality uncured bacon. This way the bacon provides a good presence in your salad without getting too greasy or salty.

Substitutions:

This is a flexible pasta salad recipe. Here are some ways to change this creamy pasta salad recipe and still keep the basic construct of a bacon ranch pasta salad.

• replace the kidney beans with drained and rinsed black beans if you prefer.
• use any type of peppers you prefer. We enjoy poblano and sweet bells mixed for flavor color and texture.
• any tomato will work if chopped to a fork size. But watch out for too juicy tomatoes. Scoop out the seeds if using large beefsteak or on the vine tomatoes before chopping.
• shell pasta can replace the bow tie.
• The garlic spread can be replaced with crushed garlic cloves run through a garlic press.

Suggested Crunchy toppings include: toasted sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds

This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.com