Our test kitchen staff was hungry for a great pasta salad recipe. We all realized how truly easy pasta salads are to make, but what makes a pasta salad great are the ingredients. So many ideas of what ingredients we should use popped up and then we just realized why not add all our favorite ingredients in and call it the Supreme pasta salad recipe?! And with so many fresh and great ingredients, we finally dubbed this easy pasta salad as the Supreme Garden Pasta Salad. It was all right in front of us and we were thrilled to make it, film it, test it and eat it all in one quick swoop.
Drool over our Supreme Garden Pasta Salad Recipe:
Seriously, pasta salads should’t be boring and the possibilities are endless. We added so many veggies like broccoli, celery and carrots. You can add cauliflower and zucchini if you like. The addition of fresh herbs really makes this garden pasta salad truly supreme with bright flavors. Just right here you have a great vegetarian pasta salad. But we all know that bacon is a popular favorite pasta salad ingredients. So to add to the supremacy of this dish, we added crunchy bacon and salty ham. Yay! How can this pasta salad not be supreme? The fresh vinaigrette is outstanding and give it a taste, share it at your next picnic party and you’ll all adore this awesome potluck pasta salad. It’s so easy to make the day ahead of time too. If you love extra flavor, just make an extra batch of the dressing and add it to the pasta salad right before serving. Enjoy more salad recipes here and pasta recipes here.
Change the ingredients to whatever you prefer or have handy. Want to make it vegetarian, leave out the ham and bacon. Adjust to your favorites. If you like extra flavor, make an extra batch of the dressing and then toss it over the salad right before serving. We prefer to use smaller pasta.
- 1 pound dried pasta , cooked to package instructions
- 2 cups chopped broccoli florets
- 1 medium bell pepper , chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 2 medium tomatoes , cut into bite sized pieces
- 3 green onion , chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 3/4 cup chopped ham
- 4 strips cooked bacon , chopped
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese , or your cheese of choice - cubed
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
- 1/2 cup mayo
- lemon zest , from 1 medium lemon
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice , fresh if possible
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper , fresh cracked if possible
- 2 Tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
- 2 Tablespoons fresh chopped basil
- Make the dressing: In large bowl whisk together all the dressing ingredients (olive oil, vinegar, mayo, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and basil). Taste the dressing and adjust salt, pepper or additional seasonings to your preference.
- Add all salad ingredients into the same bowl as the dressing (pasta, broccoli, bell pepper, celery, carrots, tomatoes, green onion, red onion, ham, bacon, and cheese). Gently stir everything together to coat with the dressing. Add additional fresh lemon zest or juice (optional) to taste. Serve chilled.
Leave a Reply