This is one of my favorite recipes! It makes a TON, so it’s great for parties, potlucks, or when you want a dinner that can also be enjoyed for a couple of lunches afterward! Whenever I’ve made it in the past for a group of people, it’s always gone over very well and I get lots of compliments.
The original recipe calls for a bottle of Western Salad Dressing, however, that’s definitely not something I use anymore. It’s filled with high fructose corn syrup, artificial color, soybean oil, natural flavor, and more yuckiness! I was able to come up with a homemade Western Dressing recipe over the weekend and this pasta salad tasted as good as always. So happy about that! While my kids weren’t huge fans of it, my husband and I both really enjoyed it (like we always do) and ate it for lunch two days in a row afterward. Yum!
Making Fiesta Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef/sirloin (local, grass-fed is best)
- 16 oz. package organic spiral pasta
- ⅓ cup water
- 1-2 T homemade taco seasoning
- 2 cups cheese, freshly shredded
- 1 organic tomato, chopped
- 1 organic green pepper, chopped
- Optional: chopped onion and/or sliced black olives (I almost always leave them out of mine)
- 1 recipe of Homemade Western Dressing
Instructions
- Cook pasta.
- In a skillet, cook ground beef until browned.
- Add water and taco seasoning, mix thoroughly, and let simmer for a few minutes (or until excess liquid is soaked up).
- When the pasta is done, drain and rinse with cold water.
- Combine pasta, beef, cheese, and chopped veggies in a LARGE bowl.
- Add the prepared dressing and stir together well.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving.
We really love this! Even my husband said he would like for me to make this more often because he really enjoys it & it’s super easy for him to eat at work. He loves that it doesn’t need to be heated up, like so many other dinner leftovers.