Pasta Salad Is 10x More Flavorful When You Add This Creamy Pantry Staple

Pasta salad is one of those dishes that can take on many different personalities. You may have heard of making a Greek-style pasta salad or of the Italian way to improve a pasta salad, but there's another route worth taking — one that is Asian-inspired. More specifically, if you use peanut butter to make a creamy dressing loaded with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and fresh lime, then you'll end up with a pasta salad that is richer, nuttier, and more vibrant than your usual deli find.

If it sounds a little out of the ordinary, you only need to think about cold noodle dishes from around the world like Thai noodle salads, satay crispy rice salads, or Indonesian gado-gado to realize that creamy peanut dressings have long been combined with crunchy vegetables, proteins, and starches. The same combination of flavors and textures can work just as well with cold pasta, giving it sweet, salty, and, spicy flavors most often associated with Southeast Asian sauces. The peanut butter gives the dressing some real body, similar to the more traditional choice of mayonnaise, so it clings to the pasta in much the same way. The only important caveat is that you must thin the peanut butter properly — straight from the jar it will be far too thick. Whisk in warm water a little at a time to loosen the dressing and ensure it's smooth and pourable. 

While short pasta shapes such as rotini, fusilli, and bow ties are more commonly used in pasta salad thanks to their ridges and curves, which hold onto the dressing, there's no need to make a special trip to the store for the "right" shape. We're taking our inspiration from a sauce that is commonly paired with cold noodle salads, so the spaghetti or fettuccine in your pantry will do the trick, too.

Once you have a creamy peanut dressing, you can build the rest of the pasta salad around it. Crisp vegetables are an obvious choice because they'll give the richer flavors some much-needed contrast. You can add thinly sliced cucumber, shredded carrots and cabbage, bell peppers, scallions, and snap peas. Proteins such as grilled chicken, edamame, or tofu can make it all more substantial while fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime help you finish it off with a restaurant-worthy pizzazz. And if you like heat, a drizzle of sriracha or chili crisp goes a long way. It's also a good idea to save a little dressing if your salad is going into the fridge to eat later. Chilled pasta can absorb sauce as it sits, so you can stir in the extra dressing before serving to ensure it's as creamy as possible.