Mexican Pasta Salad

A cloudy and windy Saturday (Sadly, no rains though)

A walk to the theatre to see Man of Steel (which I enjoyed watching)

A lazy Sunday spent meal planning and grocery shopping (my first time doing a meal plan for the week)

And, eating this mexican pasta salad for lunch today. All of this and more made it a weekend well spent. 🙂

The first time I made this easy pasta salad was for my coffee group friends and everyone enjoyed it. In fact it got my friends’ kids’ approval as well, and one of them is only 15 months old. And I think anything that gets a kid’s approval is a recipe to keep. Just make sure you reduce the spice to make the recipe more kid friendly.

V could not have it the first time I made it because whatever little was left after my friends left I finished greedily before V came home. Oops.

Today when I made it again, just for the two of us, V went for thirds. And V hardly ever goes for thirds. Another reason why this pasta recipe is a keeper.

You will like it not only because of the mexican flavors that get highlighted in this dish but also because of the ease with which it comes together. There’s hardly any prep work. And very little clean up is required afterwards.Only a dish and chopping board and a can opener is required.  For me that is a big selling point, you know, what with my love for washing dishes and all.

Plus, being a cold pasta salad recipe, you can also make it ahead. I kept it overnight and it seemed fine the next day.

I found the recipe for this on McCormick’s site, but adapted to what I had and what I thought would be nice in the salad. You can actually be as flexible as you want to be with the ingredients of this pasta salad. The recipe is just an estimate of what I used, so feel free to increase or decrease the amount of an ingredient according to your taste preferences. That’s the best part of this recipe. Its as flexible as you want it to be.

I have used canned fire roasted tomatoes instead of fresh cherry tomatoes. But then other times I have used fresh cherry tomatoes. And both work equally well in the recipe. I replaced the mayonnaise in the original recipe with sour cream. I just feel that’s more mexican than mayo.

Also, in the pictures I have used penne pasta since I had some of that leftover. The original recipe calls for rotini pasta and that’s what I think you should use. Of course you can use either. I just find rotini pasta a bit more fun, being twisted and all.

So please try this simple vegetarian pasta salad that is sure to win you over. And tell me how it goes! 🙂