It’s Monday so I have another Thug Kitchen 101 recipe to share! Today I have the Southwestern Pasta Salad.

I love pasta salads because they are a great make ahead dish so they’re perfect for parties or weekly meal planning. Another reason to love them is that you can use up so many ingredients in your fridge!

This recipe was southwestern, so it was very Mexican inspired with the ingredients. In the actual salad was black beans, tomato, corn, bell pepper, carrot, cilantro and jalapeno. There was also supposed to be red onion, but I used green instead. Everything was so colourful and there were a variety of textures. For the pasta, I used whole wheat macaroni, but you could use any short pasta.

The dressing is where the true flavour comes. Avocado and corn get blended with the other ingredients, and it becomes this super creamy dressing. There was lots of lime juice and rice vinegar which gave good acidity, but the sweetness of the corn was a good balance. I also like the bite from the green onion in it.

This was an amazing pasta salad, it made so much, there was definitely lots of leftovers. It’s a great lunch on its own or a side dish for dinner, served with extra protein.