This Shrimp and Avocado Pasta Salad is simple, healthy, and incredibly delicious. Our entire family enjoyed it for two nights in a row!
I’ve been working hard to serve my family fresh, nutritious meals and the summer season makes that so much easier! There is tons of tasty produce available, and a cold salad for dinner sounds very appealing. Even the dressing on this salad is light and refreshing — lemon juice, vinegar, fresh herbs…and no oil is even necessary!
I was interested to see how my boys would feel about this dish when I served it for dinner recently. Well let me tell you: this is 100% kid-approved! We ate it as our main course on a Saturday evening and Casey had 4 servings! Gibbs also finished his. The very next night we polished off the left-overs as a side dish. It’s that good!
Shrimp and Avocado Pasta Salad
Prep
Total
Yield 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb. cooked, peeled shrimp
- 8 ounces short pasta (I used penne, but rotini, bowtie, etc. would also work), cooked and drained
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- ½ cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
- 1 avocado, sliced
- Red or green leaf lettuce, for serving
- For the dressing:
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- For the dressing: combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight lid and shake until completely combined.
- In a large bowl, combine shrimp, cooked pasta, tomatoes, chives, bell pepper, and corn. Add ¾ of the dressing mixture and toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- To serve, arrange the lettuce leaves on individual plates. Spoon shrimp mixture onto plates. Arrange avocado on salad and drizzle with remaining dressing. Sprinkle with parsley.
- Recipe adapted from Vera Bradley: Our Favorite Recipes
Recipe adapted from the cookbook, Vera Bradley: Our Favorite Recipes.
Looking for other main course summer salads? Try these:
Chinese Chicken and Cashew Salad
Quinoa, Chicken, and White Bean Salad
This really looks good! Shrimp and pasta with avocado, sounds great. Pinning to my Summer Salads board. Stopping by from Happiness is Homemade.
Shirley @ Intelligent Domestications recently posted…DIY Ruffled Bandana Halter Top
Thanks so much, Shirley. It’s SO perfect for this time of year, especially. 🙂
This looks so good!!
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Do you think this salad would be okay without the mustard? I’m not big fan of mustard in salads for some reason, but I do like the idea of all the other ingredients. Thanks again for sharing your wonderful recipes on Merry Monday
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Hi, Erlene! You could probably use something else instead…maybe a little bit of mayo? Or just olive oil and vinegar? You might try the mustard, though — it’s so subtle that even my 3 year old loved the salad, and he’s definitely not usually a mustard eater. 🙂
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