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Best California Club Pasta Salad Recipe - Easy

An Easy Pasta Salad that your family will love using ingredients you already have in the kitchen. It's loaded with lots of nutrition needed for your daily values and you'll be happy to serve it to your family.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Side
Cuisine: American
Keyword: California Club Pasta Salad
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 337kcal
Author: Wendi Spraker
Cost: $10

Equipment

  • 1 cutting board
  • 1 knife
  • 1 large bowl
  • 1 measuring cups and spoons
  • 1 rubber spatula

Ingredients

  • 16 oz macaroni noodles
  • 1 Tbs Kosher Salt divided
  • 1 avocado chopped
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 Tomato diced
  • 4 slices deli chicken chopped - can use chicken, turkey, ham, etc.
  • 4 slices crunchy bacon chopped
  • 1 cup Baby Spinach
  • ½ purple onion diced
  • ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

Sauce

  • 1 Cup Mayonnaise
  • 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
  • 2 Tbs Milk optional - to thin sauce if needed

Instructions

  • Cook the macaroni noodles according to package instructions to al dente use 2 teaspoon kosher salt in the cooking water.
  • Drain the noodles in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Add ice cubes to the strainer and mix them into the noodles. Allow strainer to sit in the sink and drain.
  • Chop and cut up the remaining in ingredients. Set aside. *See notes about avocado.
  • Mix the sauce and set aside. Add the milk if needed to thin the sauce.
  • Once the pasta is cooled, remove any remaining ice cubes. In a large bowl mix the macaroni noodles, the veggies and other ingredients. Pour the sauce over the top and mix well with rubber spatula.
  • ​6. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Video

Notes

  • Cook the pasta to the "al dente" stage (means it isn't all soft) and then rinse with cold water.
  • To cool faster, put some ice cubes in the strainer and allow it to rest in the sink while you are preparing the other ingredients.
  • For a lower calorie diet, try using Italian dressing instead of the mayonnaise and ranch packet.
  • We like chunks of chicken in ours but sometimes I leave that out so that it doesn't become too filling.
  • If you don't have the homemade ranch dressing ingredients, you can use a bottle of ranch dressing.
  • The avocado browns quickly, cut that up and add it at the last minute or leave it off altogether if you are taking this salad to a cookout.
Substitutions
Onion - Use red onion, green onion, yellow or white onions, simply cut to a size that is palatable for pasta salad.
Lettuce - A good crunchy lettuce like Romaine lettuce seems to work the best but kale torn up small or spinach will work too!
Meat - If meat isn't your thing, you can always leave it off or use a meatless substitute.
Ranch Dressing - If you don't like to use the ranch dressing packet, you can always use the bottled dressing OR you can substutite something like Zesty Italian Salad Dressing.
Cheese - I like to use an American or Cheddar Cheese, but that is a personal preference, use goat cheese, blue cheese or even parmesan cheese.
Pasta - I'm using the macaroni noodles here but any noodles that cradles the sauce will work perfectly!
Bacon - Use a crisp bacon. Turkey bacon is fine as is bacon bits (vegetarian option)

Nutrition

Serving: 0.5cup | Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 830mg | Potassium: 255mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 410IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 1mg