Summer screams pasta salads, and we are always up for delicious pasta happiness in a bowl. This flavorful, healthy, and delicious Tex-Mex Pasta Salad is everything a great pasta salad should be and more! Tender and chewy pasta, fire roasted corn, hearty black beans, tangy olives, tasty tomatoes, and zesty red onions all mixed with a deliciously spicy Tex-Mex dressing that is absolutely perfect for picnics, work lunches, or potlucks. This easy to make, tasty pasta salad is loaded with wholesome deliciousness. We hope you love this week’s awesome Whip It Up Wednesday recipe.

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.

Hi there, Ameera here!

This week’s Whip It Up Wednesday is our delicious Tex-Mex Pasta Salad. Loaded with veggies, beans, and pasta then blanketed in a spicy, creamy sauce that is simply amazing! What’s not to love?!

We ate it up like nobody’s business!

Pasta Salads

Mom and I love salads, but in all honesty, we really freakin’ love pasta salads! We could probably live on pasta salad if we let ourselves. They are so delicious, fun, festive, and filling.  We like to load ours up with fresh veggies, beans, and pasta goodness.

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.

Whip it up Wednesday

As you know Mom and I create a 20-minute meal every Wednesday for your Whip It Up Wednesday recipe. We used to make this pasta salad quite bit before we went WFPB.  When we realized that we had yet to convert our Tex-Mex Pasta Salad to Whole Food Plant Based, we were kind of stunned.

I kept telling Mom, we already made this for the blog, sometimes, we have to look up on our blog to see if we had already made a dish or not.  I can’t tell you how many times we have made several versions of the same recipe.  LOL  But when we double checked on this one, guess what? We actually hadn’t. We had the recipe all ready to go, but somehow it disappeared from our virtual white board.

Now how the heck did that happen?

Scheduling Madness

This is what happens when you have too much going on and too many ideas! LOL Some things just kinda get lost in the shuffle. We are constantly shuffling our recipe releases around based upon what the dish is, and when we feel it is best to release it.

We also get a lot of reader requests these days that are now taking over our virtual white board, which is always exciting.

Plus, Mom gets on these Tex-Mex kicks and the next thing you know we have like 20 Tex-Mex recipes all lined up to go out at the same time so that is why we are constantly shuffling things around.

Anyways, this old-new recipe is super yummy!  We think you will love it!

We hope you enjoy our new Whip It Up Wednesday quick and easy ideas!

We hope you give this recipe a try!  If you try this delicious pasta salad, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us!  We would love to hear from you.

Products Used:

• Stock pot to cook the pasta

Tex-Mex Pasta Salad

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 15 Minutes
• Cook Time: 8-10 Minutes
• Total Time: 25 Minutes
• Yield: 4-6 Servings 1x
• Category: Salad
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Tex-Mex

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Description

Summer screams pasta salads, and we are always up for delicious pasta happiness in a bowl. This flavorful, healthy, and delicious Tex-Mex Pasta Salad is everything a great pasta salad should be and more! Tender and chewy pasta, fire roasted corn, hearty black beans, tangy olives, tasty tomatoes, and zesty red onions all mixed with a deliciously spicy Tex-Mex dressing that is absolutely perfect for picnics, work lunches, or potlucks. This easy to make, tasty pasta salad is loaded with wholesome deliciousness. We hope you love this week’s awesome Whip It Up Wednesday recipe.

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.

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Ingredients

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• 1 – [ 15 oz. can ] fire roasted corn, drained (or canned/frozen) *
• 1 – [ 15.5 oz. can ] black beans, drained and rinsed
• ½ cup black olives, sliced (optional)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), halved or quartered
• ¾ cup red onion, finely diced
• 1 – [ 12 oz. package ] tri-colored fusilli pasta (or pasta of choice) *

Dressing Ingredients:

• ¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon tomato sauce
• 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon white miso (optional) *
• 2 to 3 teaspoons organic maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• 1 to 2 teaspoons tamari *
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper (+/-)

Optional Topping Ingredients:

• Chopped avocados *
• Chopped fresh cilantro

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Instructions

1. In a small bowl, add all the Dressing Ingredients, whisk to combine, set aside.
2. Cook the pasta according to package directions, rinse thoroughly with cold water to stop the cooking process and to remove excess starch, shake off excess water, set aside.
3. In the meantime, while the pasta is cooking, add the roasted corn, black beans, sliced black olives, diced red onions, and chopped cherry tomatoes into a large bowl. Then add the cooked and cooled pasta to the bowl.
4. Pour the dressing over the pasta and veggies, gently toss until everything is thoroughly coated with the dressing.
5. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top individual servings with chopped avocados (we didn’t use) and freshly chopped cilantro.

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Notes

*Tips:  Thoroughly rinse the cooked pasta in cold water until the pasta is cold, then shake off any excess water and allow to drain for a few minutes, then shake the pasta again before adding to the bowl.  Any lingering water that hangs onto the pasta will water down your dressing.  The same goes for draining and rinsing the black beans, thoroughly rinse them, but also shake off as much excess water as you can.

*Tangy vs Spicy:  Our family was completely divided over the multiple kitchen tests we performed.  Some  loved it tangy (more vinegar) while others preferred it spicer and less tangy (less vinegar).  This is totally an individual preference.  Please feel free to adjust the vinegars and spices accordingly.  All variations are utterly delicious.

*Gluten Free Pasta:  If using a gluten free pasta, then you know the issues with refrigerating gluten free pasta. Some GF pastas really tighten up in the refrigerator making for a very unpleasant eating experience when served cold.  We absolutely loved this pasta salad right after making it at room temperature.  It was crazy delicious. If you do have to refrigerate it before serving or refrigerate any left-overs, we suggest removing it from the fridge about 30 minutes to an hour before serving. We have found Tinkyada Gluten Free Pasta and Bionaturae Organic Gluten Free Pasta work well in refrigerated GF pasta salads.

*Tri-Colored Fusilli/Spirals: We used Tinkyada Pasta Joy Brown Rice Pasta Vegetable Spirals. 

*Fire Roasted Corn:  You can find this in a can or in the freezer section. If you can’t locate any, you can use regular corn.

*Avocados:  Update – We didn’t use avocados in our recipe; however, we have had readers who have enjoyed a few chopped avocados sprinkled on top individual servings (not mixed in).

*Miso:  We used Miso Master Organic Mellow White Premium Lite Miso, Certified Gluten Free.  Miso really lends itself to balancing flavors when you don’t use oil. You can also substitute with chickpea miso for a soy free version.

*Tamari: We used San J Tamari Soy Sauce, Gluten Free, Reduced Sodium.  You can substitute the tamari with reduced sodium soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Braggs Coconut Liquid Aminos.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Serving:  4 to 6, makes 8 cups

*Storage:  Refrigerate and use within 5 days.

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.