This delicious BLT Salad with Ranch and Avocado is full of pasta, lettuce, bacon, tomato, cheddar cheese, and dressed in creamy delicious ranch dressing. It is a favorite for BBQ’s, potlucks, or even for dinner! This is a super simple recipe; you can add as many additions as you like to up the protein and flavor, too!
Easy Bacon Lettuce Tomato Salad
This recipe was the result of a work potluck. I had it once and I was hooked. It combines lettuce, pasta, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and avocado all tossed in ranch dressing. I love this recipe because I can work with what I have in my pantry. While it is a BLT salad, I like to amp it up by adding a few extra ingredients. I love hardboiled egg in this along with some parsley for a little greenery. I’ve even aded kidney beans before, too!
BLT Salad Ingredients
- Lettuce: Iceberg for its crunch. Romaine works as well.
- Pasta: I use rotini but any shape will work well.
- Tomatoes: Chef’s choice, I like halved cherry tomatoes.
- Bacon: Sliced and chopped. If you want more protein try thick cut bacon or double your portion. You could also serve this with a side of twisted bacon!
- Avocado: Slicing avocados into chunks can be intimidating, here’s a tutorial.
- Cucumbers: Optional, but I love the fresh flavor they add.
- Ranch: You can use store-bought (Ken’s Buttermilk Ranch is my favorite!) or you an make your own using this recipe.
- Cheddar Cheese: I cube mine, but shredded works as well.
How to make BLT Pasta Salad
This is a pretty straight forward recipe, but there are a few tips to make it as good as it can be!
- Boil the pasta, then rinse it under cool water in a colander once it’s cooked. If you are making this ahead of time, consider tossing the cooked, cooled pasta in about 1.5 tsp of olive oil to keep it from sticking together.
- Use about a half head of iceberg lettuce. I really recommend iceberg for this recipe because of its crunch!
- Make sure all of the veggies you’re using in this salad are washed and dried well. This will keep the salad light, fresh and crunchy.
- I love a good restaurant salad, and one of the best aspects of a restaurant salad is fresh cracked pepper. I like to load mine up with it before I serve it!
Make Ahead Instructions, Storing, & Variations
- If you want to make this salad ahead of time, wait to toss it with the dressing until right before serving.
- Additionally, store the cooled pasta in a ziplock baggy (make sure it is fully dry). Consider tossing the pasta in a little olive oil if you plan storing the pasta in the fridge before you serve it.
- I find this salad is best tossed and served immediately, mostly because of the lettuce.
- If you have leftovers you want to store, keep them in an airtight refrigerator for up to 2 days.
- If you want to make this with leftovers in mind, simply make it as a pasta salad and store the lettuce separately (versus tossing it in the salad to preserve freshness.
- Add whatever veggies sound good to you! Roasted corn, jalapeño, asparagus, you can really make it your own.
- I added some hardboiled eggs for added protein before I served it. Adding shrimp would be great, too.
- Not a fan of bacon? Use chicken! Leftover or rotisserie chicken would be great.
- Steak would be great as well; use bleu cheese dressing and it’s a pasta wedge salad dupe!
- We use Ken’s Buttermilk ranch, but you could make your own (our favorite ranch dressing recipe is here).
More Favorite Pasta Recipes
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Enjoy! – Kathi and Rachel
BLT Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups cooked pasta (rinsed and cooled)
- 2 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
- 3/4 cup cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup chopped bacon
- 3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup sliced cucumbers
- 1 whole avocado; sliced and diced
- 1/4 cup sliced green onion
- 1/4 cup ranch dressing
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Once fully cooked, rinse under cool water until pasta is fully cooled. Dry well with a paper towel.
- Add all other ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Combine remaining ingredients with pasta in a large mixing bowl. Toss with ranch dressing.
- Add more dressing if desired, along with salt and pepper, serve & enjoy!
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