Summer Avocado Pasta Salad
Enjoy this Summer Avocado Pasta Salad with creamy homemade dressing, for easy entertaining. Make ahead for a picnic or holiday potluck dish.
This Summer Avocado Pasta Salad is the perfect summer entertaining salad. It’s a quick and easy side or main dish full of sweet, juicy tomatoes, fresh peas, fresh dill, bacon and chunks of avocado. Toss together with a homemade creamy dressing–so good!
Summer Avocado Pasta Salad
When it comes to planning a summer barbecue, a pasta salad is always on our menu. This summer we’ve added this Summer Avocado Pasta Salad, Summer Italian Spaghetti Salad and Creamy Caprese Pasta Salad, to our summer dinners.
Easy summer entertaining – make a pasta salad
We love this colorful pasta salad, and it’s always a big hit at every potluck.
Usually when you think of a creamy pasta salad, you don’t think about it having peas, but this combo is the best. And anything tastes better with bacon, right?
We feel this is the right combo – with a light lemon-y dressing!
Ingredients needed for Summer Avocado Pasta Salad:
- Bacon
- Orecchiette whole wheat pasta, or small shells or bow tie – I use DeLallo
- Mayonnaise
- Lemon\Salt + Garlic powder + White pepper
- Fresh dill
- Cherry tomatoes
- Avocado
- English peas
How do you make an avocado pasta salad?
- Cook the bacon until crisp; set aside on a paper towel. Crumble when cooled.
- Cook pasta according to package directions; strain and cool.
- In a small bowl, add the mayonnaise, lemon, salt, garlic powder, pepper and 1 Tbsp. dill.
- In a large bowl, add the cooled pasta, tomatoes, and peas. Toss to combine.
- Pour the dressing over the pasta mixture; toss gently and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Add in bacon and avocados right before serving.
- Garnish with remaining fresh dill and serve!
Tips and Substitutions:
- Use your favorite pasta for this salad, but a great tip is small pasta is best.
- Swap out the dill for fresh basil. Delish!
- If you don’t like peas, you can add other veggies like bell peppers, carrots, even chopped zucchini and red onion.
- In place of mayo, you can use Greek yogurt.
Enjoy pasta leftovers
I did make this for my family recently and they loved it. I will admit, very few leftovers were left in the dish! But I’m a sucker for leftovers.
We also made it a few weeks ago and added fresh summer corn! YUM!
We love fresh peas right. I buy English peas at Trader Joe’s and they only take a few minutes to boil, drain, season, and enjoy!
Mm-m-m … with warm butter. Oh, and DeLallo whole wheat organic pasta … :)
The dressing … with fresh lemon and dill. And white pepper! I love cooking with white pepper!
This is very easy to make, and I think ultimately it’s the perfect summer salad!
Connecting with people this summer
Our days are long, busy, full of things we want to do and things we do not want to do. Since our recent move, they can be exhausting and tiring. We still try to get together with friends, because we know we are made to live a connected life. We’ve had many role model people in our lives who have showed us how to prioritize hospitality. It’s so worth it, even in our business.
So who will we invite for dinner this week? (wink-wink)
Happy weekend, Friends!
More pasta salads to try:
Macy’s Pacific Rim Pasta Salad
Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Salad
Get the Recipe:
Summer Avocado Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 slices bacon, chopped into one inch pieces
- 16 oz. Orecchiette whole wheat pasta, or small shells or bow tie – I use DeLallo
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon white pepper
- 2 Tbsp. fresh dill
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- 1 avocado pitted, cut into chunks
- 10 oz. fresh English peas, cooked and drained
Instructions
- Cook the bacon until crisp; set aside on a paper towel. Crumble when cooled.
- Cook pasta according to package directions; strain and cool. (You may need to run water over the pasta to prevent sticking.)
- In a small bowl, add the mayonnaise, lemon, salt, garlic powder, pepper and 1 Tbsp. dill.
- In a large bowl, add the cooled pasta, tomatoes, and peas. Toss to combine.
- Add the dressing to the mixture; toss gently and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Add in bacon and avocados right before serving. Garnish with remaining fresh dill and serve!
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Just a heads up you don’t list when you should add in the bacon in the recipe
I’ve just come across your site and found this lovely salad, so decided to make it for our dinner tonight, but I’ll make a full meal of it by adding a small can of red salmon. This is right up our alley right now since we’re in our summer time here in Australia and being caravanners during this time I’ll definitely be making it time and time again. Thank you for sharing.
Awesome! Let me know how it turns out with salmon!
Dear Sandy, Thank you for this amazing recipe! I concur completely with your thoughtful and gracefully expressed comments. I am already preparing this meal for a dear friend / dance partner who is stopping in for a bite in a bit!
Any suggestions for a dill replacement? The recipe looks amazing, but none of us are big fans of dill!
Emily, really any fresh herb would be delicious!
I really loved reading this today! It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about this past week and drilling on today in my personal life. I just feel like there are/were so many people in my life that were just sucking the life and happiness out of me. I was too quick to say yes to everyone of my “friends” knowing that if I needed them they would be no where to be found. Same with family. I have a few family members that only call on us when they’re in need of something, any effort to see them is when we make the call or plan a date with them. I have friends that are all about what favors I can do for them this week and never about what they can do for me and it’s draining. I’ve been taking a step back and reevaluating my life and friends and even family. I want to be there for them but there is only so much “give give give” that I can give before I’m emotionally and physically worn out. I’d rather have a small group of 2-3 real friends than 100 “friends/family” that NEED me 24/7.
One of my favorite posts you’ve written. So true on seasons…friendships. So much to reflect on.
And the pasta salad, oh does that look SO GOOD.