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Easy Ranch Pasta Salad with bacon, broccoli, and red pepper tossed with a creamy delicious ranch pasta salad dressing!
All of you folks looking for an easy to make summer pasta salad, this is for you! I recently got an email from Sophia (a long time CCC fan and regular commenter) who told me that she loved the idea of my Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad, but she didn’t want to have to measure out all of the seasonings. I promised I’d come up with a variation that was a bit quicker, so Sophia, here it is!
The main difference between my original Ranch Pasta Salad and this version is the use of a Ranch seasoning packet from the grocery store. You can’t get much easier than this! You’ll start with 12 ounces of mini shells, cooked according to package directions.
Ingredients:
When the mini shells are cooking, prep the pasta salad ingredients:
- broccoli – cut broccoli florets into small bite sized pieces
- green onions – sliced
- red peppers – diced
- crispy cooked bacon – try baking your bacon in the oven, here’s how!
You can toss the broccoli in with the pasta for the last few minutes to soften it a bit, or keep it raw.
Ranch Pasta Salad Dressing
Let’s make the dressing!
To keep is as easy as possible, I combined 1 cup mayonnaise with a ranch seasoning packet from the grocery store, and a couple tablespoons of milk. When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, then run it under cold water for a bit so that it cools. Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Cover the pasta salad and allow it to chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours so that all of the flavors can come together. You may need to adjust the seasonings with a bit of salt and pepper, I’ll leave that up to you. If necessary, add a bit more milk right before serving. There you have it, a super easy version of Ranch Pasta Salad!
If by chance you aren’t crazy about using the ranch salad dressing packet from the grocery store, checkout my original Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pasta Salad!
This Easy Ranch Pasta Salad is perfect for summer BBQ’s, cookouts and potlucks! Enjoy!
Easy Ranch Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 ounces mini shells cooked according to package directions and cooled
- 1 cup mayo
- 1 ranch dressing seasoning packet
- 3 tablespoons milk
- salt pepper to taste
- 1 cup broccoli floretts chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 2 green onions chopped
- 6-8 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine mayo, milk and ranch reasoning packet.
- In a large bowl, toss together cooled pasta, broccoli, red bell pepper, green onions, bacon, and mayo mixture.
- Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
- Add in a tablespoon or two of milk right before serving if needed.
