A fresh and easy southwest tortellini pasta salad that can be made in less than 30 minutes! It’s loaded with veggies and protein and coated in a deliciously simple and healthy southwest dressing.
If I had it my way, I’m pretty sure I could live off of pasta salad. I think I’ve mentioned that before.
I have a ton of various pasta salad recipes on my site because they make a great main dish OR side dish! You can usually customize them with ingredients you already have in your pantry too.
One thing I especially love about this Southwest pasta salad is that it’s made with TORTELLINI! Tortellini pasta are pretty much a staple in my freezer.
They’re perfect for nights when I need something really quick to throw together, and my family loves them!
A few of our other favorite tortellini recipes include One Pan Lemon Chicken Tortellini and Creamy Tomato and Spinach Tortellini.
Things I love about this Southwest Tortellini Pasta Salad:
It can be made ahead of time.
Cook the tortellini, chop the veggies and make the dressing on the side. Then combine everything right before you’re about to eat! It’s already a really quick dish to prepare, but doing those things ahead of time make it the perfect side dish to dinner, BBQ’s or any type of event where you have to bring a side dish to share.
Refrigerated cheese tortellini are the best kind!
Although the dry packaged kind will work for this recipe, I just don’t think they taste as good. The refrigerated kind only take a few minutes to cook once your water is boiling and they’re cute little bite-size bites of cheesy bliss 🙂
It’s a great healthy meal your family will love!
This is one of the healthier meals I like to feed my kids. They LOVE it, and I love that it’s loaded with veggies and good protein from the beans. The dressing is pretty mild–definitely not too spicy for my family. If you do want to add a little “heat” to the dressing you could add some Valentina hot sauce.
Consider trying these pasta salad recipes:
- Healthy Chicken Pasta Salad
- Creamy Pesto Tortellini Pasta Salad
- Italian Pasta Salad
- BBQ Chicken Pasta Salad
- Pasta Primavera
Southwest Tortellini Pasta Salad
Video
Ingredients
- 20 ounce package three cheese refrigerated tortellini
- 1 cup corn fresh from 1 ear of cooked corn, canned or frozen corn
- 15 ounce can black beans , drained and rinsed
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1 avocado , chopped
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes , halved
- 1/4 cup red onion , chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro , chopped
Dressing:
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- juice from 2 limes
- 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Add tortellini to a large bowl. Add cooked corn, black beans, bell pepper, avocado, cherry tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.
- Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a resealable jar. Shake until combined. Pour desired amount of dressing (you may not want to use it all) over the pasta and toss to coat.
- You might also enjoy Creamy Pesto Tortellini Pasta Salad.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
Katie says
Absolutely delicious! I’m going to use that dressing with my taco salad, too. We now have another favorite pasta salad.
Pat says
Not sure as to how many packages of tortellini are used. Thanks!
Lauren Allen says
One 20 ounce package of tortellini
Denise says
Thank you for all your recipes, they all look amazing. I love trying new recipes, can’t wait to try some.
Megan says
Can you use lemons instead of limes?
Lauren Allen says
Sure 🙂
Teri Bitler says
I have made this many times for potluck dinners, etc. and this recipe is always a HIT!!
Stacy says
Do you think substituting the sugar for Truvia/Stevia would work?
Lauren Allen says
Sure! Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Rex Hutcheson says
This was a satisfying and tasty dish.
Jenn says
Loved this recipe so much. My husband did too & we are adding this recipe to our meatless Mondays!
Deb says
Is there a premade dressing I can buy that would go good with this? i don’t really like making dressings from scratch
Lauren Allen says
You can use whatever dressing you like, but this one is REALLY easy to stir together (takes less than 5 minutes) and has a tex-mex flavor. I can’t think of anything similar that’s store-bought.