The Best Healthy Creamy Bow Tie Pasta Salad

This healthy, light, and creamy bow tie pasta salad is packed with fresh veggies and tossed with homemade ranch dressing. With all this delicious goodness, you better believe it's good for you too!

This creamy bow tie pasta salad is healthy because it's packed with fresh veggies and tossed with homemade ranch dressing. This recipe was passed down from my Grannie, and with a couple of tweaks, I’ve perfected it. The red onion adds a wonderful crunch and the creamy dressing brings everything together. This is one of my husband, Reggie’s, favorites, so needless to say, I make it A LOT. It’s great the next day as well after all the flavors have time to get to know each other. 

I also LOVE garlic and one of my favorite ways to eat it is roasted. It’s perfect spread over slices of toasted French bread and goes great with this pasta salad. In fact, you won't find this healthy creamy pasta salad on my table without roasted garlic. It's super easy to make: How To Roast Garlic.

Ingredients

• Mini bow tie pasta: I love these little pastas, especially the mini versions. You can get the regular sized ones but they aren't as fun.
• Jar of sliced kalamata olives: Make sure you get them already sliced or at the very least, pitted. It's not a big deal if you don't, it just takes extra time to pit them.
• Red onion: You want to dice this very small since you don't want huge chunks running rampant in your salad.
• Jar of artichoke hearts: You can also buy canned, or my favorite, frozen artichokes. The frozen ones seem to be harder for me to find, so I end up getting them in jars. Chop them up into small pieces.
• Cucumber: Cucumbers also add a little crunch. I like to roughly peel them then small dice them.
• Cherry tomatoes: Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl. **Pro Tip: sprinkle some salt on your tomatoes and let them sit while you make the rest of the salad. The salt will draw out the juices and make them absolutely delicious!
• Frozen peas: Frozen peas are best for this because they are flash-frozen separately so they don't clump together.
• Broccoli: Briefly steam chopped broccoli in the microwave so they aren't raw and they have a bright green color.
• Ranch dressing: One of the best ways to make this dish healthy is to make your own ranch dressing. It's incredibly easy.
• Italian dressing: This is optional. You can make some yourself or use store-bought. Store-bought isn't as healthy, but it was in the original version and does add some good flavor, however, it is not necessary.
• Salt & pepper: For a little flavor.
• Parmesan cheese: Parmesan cheese adds a little salt and makes the pasta a bit more creamy. Plus, it's delicious.

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How to make the best healthy bow tie pasta salad recipe

1. Bring a medium pot of water to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Pour it through a strainer in the sink and rinse with cold water to stop the pasta from cooking any longer. This also cools it down, so if you’re eating right away, your salad isn’t warm.  
2. Dice the onion, roughly chop the artichokes, roughly peel the cucumber and chop, and slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Place peas in a small bowl and microwave for a minute or until thawed. Cut the broccoli head into small pieces, place in a bowl, and add a tablespoon of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for two minutes.
3. In a large bowl add the pasta, olives, onion, artichokes, cucumbers, and tomatoes (I like to sprinkle a little salt on the tomatoes and let them sit for 10 minutes or so in the bowl while I’m preparing the rest of the dish, to bring out their juicy flavor), peas, and broccoli. 
4. In a small bowl, whisk the ranch and Italian dressings together, and add a pinch of salt and few grinds of pepper. Feel free to taste the dressing to adjust to your liking. 
5. Toss the dressing in the pasta salad, add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper, and the parmesan cheese.

All about the dressing

The ranch dressing in this recipe makes all the difference here. You can take any pasta salad without the dressing and you've got a relatively healthy dish. What you put on top is important. That's why I like to use my homemade ranch dressing. It's made with fresh herbs, sour cream, buttermilk, and yogurt. We eat a lot of this easy and creamy pasta salad at my house and I like to make sure we can eat that heaping second helping.

FAQ's

Can you make this gluten-free? Yes! You can use gluten-free pasta and get an amazing dish!

What kind of meat can I add to this pasta salad? You can add smoked or grilled salmon, rotisserie chicken, or canned tuna to add a little protein here.

Is this pasta salad recipe vegetarian? Yes, this meal is naturally vegetarian!

Can I use other dressings on this pasta salad? Yes, you can use any other dressings you'd like. I choose to use my homemade ranch dressing (and sometimes a homemade Italian dressing) because I know exactly what's in them and I can be confident they go well with this dish.

If you try it out, let me know how it goes in the comments or on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest.