This EASY 10-minute Summer Pesto Pasta Salad is loaded with fresh ingredients like juicy tomatoes, corn, avocado, garlic, and lemon zest, all tossed together with warm pasta and delicious basil pesto!
Summer is right around the corner and there is nothing better than a delicious loaded veggie pasta salad to serve at all your favorite gatherings! Juicy, colorful tomatoes, fresh corn, sliced avocado, and warm pasta, all tossed together with a flavorful basil pesto. This pasta salad is made with just a few simple ingredients and can easily be thrown together in just 10 minutes!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- Perfect addition to summer parties, cookouts or a simple meal at home!
- Light, healthy and delicious!
- Easy to make and comes together in just 15 minutes.
- Homemade pesto also tastes great on top of pizza, works as a salad dressing and is a great topping for steak or chicken.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- pasta – for this recipe I used cavatappi noodles, but feel free to use any type of curly/corkscrew pasta such as rotini or fusilli. The nooks in the pasta really grab hold of the pesto nicely!
- cherry tomatoes – I used cherry tomatoes, but you could use grape tomatoes as well.
- corn – you can use fresh corn right off the cob, frozen corn or even canned corn.
- avocado – adds creaminess to this pasta salad and healthy fats.
- pesto – this homemade pesto tastes amazing! You could also use store-bought pesto to make this recipe quick and simple.
- lemon + zest – brightens up this pasta salad and adds fresh flavor.
- garlic – fresh garlic tastes best in this recipe, but feel free to use one teaspoon of garlic powder in place of fresh garlic.
- fresh basil – gives this salad such a fresh taste! You could also use cilantro with these flavors to switch things up a bit or even parsley in place of the basil.
- red pepper flakes – adds a kick of spice. You could also add in some hot sauce or cayenne pepper.
How to Make Summer Pesto Pasta Salad
This salad is really SO simple to throw together! Simply boil your noodles to al dente per the package instructions and while your noodles cook you can chop up all the tomatoes and slice your avocado. Then once the noodles are done boiling and are drained, I like to mix the warm noodles with the fresh garlic which really gives the noodles a nice garlicky flavor! Then add in the rest of your ingredients, including a little lemon juice plus some zest, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and of course, that delicious pesto. Give everything a good stir, add in some fresh basil and your pasta salad is ready to serve!
The great thing about this pasta salad is not only does it taste great warm, but it also tastes great cold! You can refrigerate this salad for up to 6 hours before serving, but of course like most pasta salads, it’s always going to taste the best right after making it. If you’re worried about your avocado browning, feel free to make everything ahead of time, refrigerate, then mix in the avocado slices right before serving. You can also add in more veggies to this as well or even some mozzarella cheese balls!
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More Summer Salad Recipes
- Tomato, Cucumber & Chickpea Salad
- Red, White & Blueberry Fruit Salad
- Chili-Rubbed Salmon with Summer Corn Salad
- Loaded Veggie Pasta Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
- 5-Minute Pea & Arugula Pesto Pasta Salad
- Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Hope you all enjoy this Summer Pesto Pasta Salad and if you love this as much as we do, please leave me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I love seeing all your delicious recreations!
Summer Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz cavatappi pasta, any corkscrew pasta will work
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 1/2 cups corn, fresh or frozen
- 1 avocado, pitted and diced
- 1 cup pesto,
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice + 1 tsp zest
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta per package instructions until al dente. Drain pasta, rinse with water and transfer to a large bowl.
- Mix together the garlic with warm pasta until all incorporated, then add in tomatoes, corn and avocado. Pour in the pesto and mix well until everything is nice and coated.
- Add in lemon juice, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, salt/pepper and fresh basil and give everything another good stir until all mixed together. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried this last night and our whole family loved it! My Toddler ate it again today for lunch too. Such a great flavorful easy pasta, thanks!
The perfect summer pasta salad! Can’t wait to make this again and again 🙂
My entire family thought this was a flop. Bland for some reason, even though I bought a reputable pesto.
Still on the look out for a palatable summer pasta salad.
I’m at a loss how this ended up so bland for you, did you season with salt and pepper? Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this!
Thanks for sharing this grrrreat, quick to make recipe. My boyfriend just loved it. The best thing I find about it that st’s so simple to make that my b/f can also make this.
Thanks.
Yumm3!!!have to try all salads Yummy and delicious 🥰🥰🥰
Yummy, kids love this pesto pasta salad sooo much! Perfect for summertime, thanks for sharing!