This is one of my family’s very favorite side dishes. We eat this as a tasty side to a roast chicken or ribs, or even as a meal by itself!
Creamy Pasta Salad
Author: Emily
Recipe type: Main Dish, Side Dish
Ingredients
- ½ box shaped pasta
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
- ½ pkg mini pepperonis (regular size is ok, too)
- 8 Monterey Jack cheese sticks (snack sticks) cut into chunks (you can use any kind of cheese, but we always have these around, and it is easy to just slice them up!)
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- Ranch dressing (We use the packet to make our own...much better tasting)
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions on the box. Drain it.
- Place colander with drained pasta into a bowl with ice and water in it to cool it off.
- Put all the rest of the ingredients, except the ranch dressing into a bowl. Pour the cooled pasta onto a clean towel and really dry it off.
- Pour pasta into the bowl . Stir in the ranch as you like it. A little, a lot—there's no exact science to it. This goes great with any BBQ'd food, or even as a meal by itself!
I have made this dish also, but used imatation crab meat and shrimp. It is really good.
Oh yum! I’ll have to try that!
Do you use raw carrots?
I did use raw carrots. I also used frozen broccoli and think it would be better cooked. The raw broccoli was a bit tough and chewy.
Jessica,
I would recommend using fresh raw broccoli, cut to bite size pieces. Frozen broccoli thawed can tend to be really tough without cooking.
Sorry Maryann-yes! I do use raw carrots chopped.
I made this over the weekend and found I needed to add salt and pepper to taste and next time, I will cook my broccoli. In it’s raw state it was rather tough. Otherwise, it was good.
Exactly how much is “1/2 a box”??? What size is the box????
Half of a 1 pound, or 16oz box. It is approximate. It depends on how much pasta you like, I use about half, but you could use up to a whole box.
thanks! I hate to assume anything! It looks tasty and I will definitely try it.
Glad you have this posted! We have been doing almost the same recipe for years! I don’t use the pepperoni but have used large black olives in it. Hubby loves when I put in large chunk crab meat. I found that using generic ranch dressing tastes better than name brand in this b/c the seasoning doesn’t overpower the other ingredients so much. Will try your version next time we make this! 😉
How do you keep it from getting dry, my pasta always absorbs the mayo etc and when I used Ranch dressing it absorbed that too?
The pasta will absorb the mayo or ranch everytime. If you are preparing ahead of time, mix in only a small amount of ranch-enough to keep it from sticking together. Then when you are ready to serve, mix in your preferred amount of ranch!
Thanks, I thought I’d done something wrong. I wonder how restaurants do theirs, it’s never dry.
add sour cream to mayo or to ranch dressing
I keep reading about mayo and sour cream, where does it say in the recipe about either one? And how much do you add? I am making it for dinner tonight.
Thanks
Audrey
Hi Audrey, The Mayo and Sour Cream references are just about other people’s recipes. This one uses Ranch Dressing (and I use the packet of dry dressing mix and make it myself)
Has anyone done this with gluten free pasta? How’d it taste?
I make a pasta salad using other veggies also…Tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions
can use any kind of meat, seafood or beans
I make mine with half Italian dressing, and half ranch….that adds the zip.
I made this last night to go with my fiancé’s filet mignon on the grill and it was perfect! So delish! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Turned out fantastic , Im not much of a pepperoni person so i used salad shrimp along with green peppers,onions,and cucumbers fresh from the garden and was very good.The broccoli needs to be steamed or cooked some for me .But that is all personal preference.
To achieve a slightly creamier texture i used some sour cream and milk both approx 1/3 c each .
Thanks for the great recipe idea !
Can i use regular sweet peas instead of frozen ones. I left my dethawed peas in the refrigerator for a week and I dont want to use them.
Of course! That will probably be better, frozen is just easier.
How many servings does this recipe make?
This makes about 6 dinner sized servings.