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Southwest Pasta Salad with a Honey Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

Rotini pasta tossed together with corn, tomatoes, avocado, red onion, black beans, and a sweet and zesty honey cilantro lime vinaigrette
Servings 6 people
Author Olivia

Ingredients

For the Honey Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

  • 3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1/4 cup Fresh Lime Juice (about 2 limes)
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • 1 packed cup Cilantro
  • 2 tbsp Honey
  • 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
  • 2 Garlic Cloves (roughly chopped)
  • 1/4 tsp Salt

For the Pasta Salad

  • 8 oz Rotini Pasta (or another type of short length pasta)
  • 2 Medium Corn Cobs (husked)
  • 1/2 cup Finely Chopped Red Onion
  • 1 1/2 cups Halved Cherry Tomatoes
  • 1 cup Canned Black Beans (rinsed with water)
  • 1 Avocado (cut into medium sized chunks)
  • 1/2 cup Sliced Green Onions

Instructions

For the Honey Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

  • Place all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette into a blender. Blend the ingredients until they have combined. It should be smooth but you still want to be able to see little green specks of cilantro. Set aside for later.

For the Pasta Salad

  • Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the corn to the boiling water and allow it to cook for about 5-7 minutes. The corn has cooked when the kernels are tender and you can easily pierce it with the tip of a knife. Remove it from the boiling water and place it into a bowl of ice water to chill. When the corn has chilled remove it from the water and set aside.
  • Add a generous sprinkling of salt to the same pot of boiling water. Add in the pasta and cook for about 7 minutes or until al dente. Strain the the pasta and run it under cold water until the pasta has chilled. Strain any excess water from the pasta and transfer it to a large bowl.
  • Take one of the chilled corn cobs and stand it up on the flat end. Run the knife down the sides of the corn to remove the kernels from the cob. Repeat with the remaining corn cob.
  • Add the corn kernels, the red onion, tomatoes, black beans, avocado, and green onion to the bowl of pasta. Pour in the vinaigrette and gently mix the ingredients together until well combined. Taste the pasta salad adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Enjoy!