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.
I’m crazy for pasta salads in the summer and I will definitely have to try your dressing recipe asap.
I have such a hard time with friends. I have a lot of great peripheral friends but it’s been years (since college, when we all went our separate ways) that I’ve had a really close girlfriend. And now that we just moved to Moab I feel like I’m starting all over again! I agree, those of you with a close-knit group of friends are truly blessed!
The recipe sounds yummy. The real “meat” of this post is our friendships. My wife and I have been wonderfully blessed as we have had a circle of friends that have grown up with us, we became friends when our children were young, and as they grew so did our friendship. We have watched all of our children grow up, graduate high school, some graduate college, some start their lives right out of high school. We have all loved, laughed, prayed for and enjoyed all of our children in every stage of life that they were in. Fortunately all of the adults/ parents also grew with our children, we laughed with each other, prayed for each other, worried about our children together…. (we still do this), they may grow up but we never stop caring for them. God has been so good to us, by allowing us have wonderful friends that have been in our lives for over 25 years, some we have had since high school. There have been those “friends” who have moved on, and that is part of life, we cherish the times we spent with them for a season, but the real TRUE friends are there for you no matter what, and we are so blessed to have those kinds of friends. We can all call, text, FB message each other for prayer requests, and know with out a doubt it will be prayed for. We have shared the joy of seeing our children grow up marry, have children, of course OUR grandson is the CUTEST grandson EVER!!!…. And now at this stage of life we can all get together, for a long week end and just love on each other and enjoy the blessing of true and wonderful FRIENDSHIP. Sandy thank you for writing about Friendship and the different types and stages that we all go through. As always I send blessings and hugs to you and yours…….. Curtis & Sherrie…… celebrating our 36th anniversary TODAY!!
I love this talk on friends. I love you! And miss you!! xoxo
Hi, This looks like a wonderful summer lunch or dinner; I’m anxious to make it with some gluten free pasta shells. Loved your post about friendships-you hit the topic perfectly. It is always good to have different friends-couples as well as just girlfriends. I have many types of girlfriends-some from church, some dog owners,some quilters and some tried and true friends. Love them all.
Noreen
what a good reminder about evaluating the friendships in your life, since we moved a few months ago I’ve had to let go of some now I am also hoping to make some new ones in our new town!!! Think I would enjoy hanging out with you Sandy!!!!
the salad looks good – do you have any tips on cooking bacon? I always find it so messy!!!
Sometimes I use the pre-cooked bacon and quickly reheat in the microwave on a paper towel. If not, after frying I place the meat on a paper towel and let the pan cool. I quickly wipe it out with a paper towel before washing. Not too messy! :)
Oh my gosh, this looks so delicious! That “sauce”!
YUM! Avocado, bacon, pasta…winner winner chicken dinner! Friendships are definitely interesting and I’ve really noticed it this past year when we made a HUGE life shift that was not planned…it was a real test and eye opener as to what any friendships we had were based on. Were they based on a common agreement of beliefs or did it go much deeper. It has been a desert year in terms of relationships and friendships but as hard as it’s been, it’s been okay…my hubby has never been a huge “social” guy unless it’s people he really wants to spend time with and over the years I’ve just been okay with that. But there are certainly times where I miss the idea of gathering regularly with friends.
Thanks for sharing, Kirstin. Seasons … and evaluating. I think the important thing is to make your life what you want it to be. Friendships take a lot of work. My husband is not as social as me, but he knows how important it is for me, and ultimatley he knows even though he is an introvert, how much he does need good people in his life. Wish you were down here … we’d love to hang out with you guys!
Mmmm. This looks like a perfect combination of some great ingredients.
Yes, some friends come and go. Some friends don’t put the work into it. Some friends are there your whole life.
I always enjoy your blog and can really relate to this one. We love to entertain and sometimes need to think a little harder on our guest lists…do they reciprocate (but do understand that some people never entertain), do they add to the party, are they positive people, do they appreciate the invitation, do they leave us with a good feeling when they leave, etc.?
The older we get, the more we realize that we need to let go of the people that don’t add to our lives. :(
I think that we’d be great friends!
Thanks for sharing, MJ. I agree … I think most people would, but sometimes it’s hard to not be nice, or admit friendship struggles! Thanks for weighing in! :) I think we’d be great friend as well!
This sounds yummy! How long will the avocado hold up until it starts turning brown?
I updated the recipe, Amy. Thanks for pointing that out!
You can also squirt lime juice in there!
I don’t care for dill… what would you substitute? I’m on your e-mail list. :-)
Try basil, Kay! :)