I love recipes that are easy to serve to a crowd, and pasta salads are at the top of that list! If you are looking for great picnic food, this Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad is perfect! Not only is it full of great flavors, it doesn’t have any meat or dairy in it, so it can sit out just a little bit longer than other dishes. Huge shout out to my friends on Facebook who follow along, are super supportive, and gave me the idea for this amazing pasta salad recipe.
How to Make Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
How to Cook Pasta for Pasta Salads
Here are a few great tips that you can use for cooking pasta for any recipe, plus one to keep on hand for pasta salads.
Let the water come to a roaring boil before you add the dry noodles. You want to see really big bubbles. Not allowing it to bubble will make for gummy pasta. Salt the water. Adding about a teaspoon of kosher salt to the water makes a huge difference. Set a timer. Since you are going to be prepping other ingredients while the noodles cook it’s a great idea to set a timer for the time listed on the box. That way your noodles will turn out perfect. Drain the noodles once they are al dente. You want them to have a little bit of bite left to them and not be overly soft. Immediately rinse the noodles in cold water. Since pasta salads are served cold, we can rinse the noodles which will stop them from cooking more and will keep them in perfect shape for our pasta salad.
Making the Dressing Less Spicy
The dressing for this pasta salad is made with just a few ingredients: hot sauce, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. The hot sauce makes it pretty spicy, which I think is perfect here. If you want to cool it down a little, replace some of the hot sauce with more olive oil, and remove the black pepper. Before you add it to all of your ingredients, taste it and make sure that it is to your liking. It is very easy to tweak it before you add it to the pasta salad and much harder after.
Picking the Perfect Avocado
For this recipe you want to have an avocado that is not overly ripe. When you are looking for one at the grocery store, pick them up and gently press on them. They should have just a little bit of give left to them.
Rinsing Beans
You might notice that lots of recipes call for you to rinse canned beans before you use them in recipes. This is such a great tip! Beans are packed in liquid that are loaded with sodium. If you don’t rinse the beans first it will drastically change the flavor of the final dish. Always drain your beans first and then rinse them until the liquid runs clear.
Tips and Tricks
Swap out the black eyed peas for black beans. I find that a lot of people aren’t fans of black eyed peas. I love them in this recipe, but if you don’t, black beans are a great substitution. Use frozen corn. Frozen corn is so easy to keep on hand. Thaw a heaping cup of it to replace the canned corn in this recipe. Skip the organic apple cider vinegar. It has a very strong taste and you might not enjoy it as much in this recipe. If that is all you have on hand, start with less, as a little goes a long way. Switch the cilantro for green onions. If you are one of the unfortunate souls who tastes soap when you eat cilantro, take it out of this recipe and add in some green onions instead.
Other Great Picnic Food
Here are some other great ideas that can sit out a little longer than other dishes.
Asian Cucumber Salad Cucumber Avocado Salad Fruit Salad
