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Creamy Pasta Salad with Arugula

Protein-Packed Creamy Pasta Salad

This crowd-pleasing pasta salad comes together quickly for an easy entertaining side dish. It's also easy to pack for a perfect summer picnic. Non-fat Greek yogurt helps increase the protein content, and you can easily throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand.

Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Pasta
  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 lb Canadian bacon, diced
  • 1 medium shallot or small onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 generous handful fresh arugula leaves

Dressing

  • 3 cups nonfat Greek yogurt (I like Fage!)
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp Ranch Dressing Powder Mix (Hidden Valley)
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper (or more/less, to taste)

Instructions

  1. Place a large pot of water to boil. While it heats up, chop/dice/mince the rest of the ingredients.

  2. Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Sauté the shallot/onion until slightly translucent, then add the garlic, diced red bell pepper, frozen corn, and peas. Allow everything to cook through, approximately 5 minutes, stirring every so often.

  3. Cook pasta according to package instructions. While the pasta cooks, combine all the dressing ingredients.

  4. Drain the pasta, and put back into the pot. Add the sautéed Canadian bacon & vegetables, then add HALF of the dressing to the mixture.

  5. If not serving right away: refrigerate the pasta salad, other half of the dressing, and the arugula separately.

  6. Just before serving, add arugula and the rest of the dressing. Toss to combine.

Recipe Notes

If you do not serve this pasta salad right away, you'll find that the pasta noodles will soak up all the dressing and look something like this:

Not to worry ... This is why I suggest mixing only half the dressing, and keeping the other half to add in just before serving!

*There is MSG in Hidden Valley Ranch dry seasoning mix, but I like to keep some on hand for easy use. If you would like to avoid this, there are several recipes online (like this one by Damn Delicious) to make your own!