Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad

Bursting with fresh flavours, this Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad makes a delicious side dish or add grilled shrimp or chicken for a complete meal.

Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad

Originally published October 2014. Updated August 2024. 

I can’t say that I’m a big fan of cold dinners but when it comes to one that includes something as flavourful as this chipotle lime pasta salad, I’m definitely more easily convinced.

When on vacation recently in the southern states, I ate a lot of barbecue as I always do. At one pit barbecue place, they served up some very thinly sliced smoked centre loin pork. It was lightly smoked and so incredibly juicy and tender that I knew I would have to try a version myself. You’ll read more about that a little later on Rock Recipes. Stay tuned.

While experimenting with that recipe, I found that the end result made fantastic cold cuts for sandwiches or to use as part of what we like to call around here, a cold plate. Here in Newfoundland, a Sunday evening tradition, still in many families, is a weekly cold plate supper.

Nothing like a cold plate!

Sunday dinner, which is often actually what we refer to lunch as here in Newfoundland (dinner is supper), is usually a big roast dinner meal. All the while I grew up, the planned for, leftover potatoes were turned into one or more varieties of potato salad. Varieties included pickled beet potato salad or mustard salad for supper, later in the day.

We always made macaroni salad and coleslaw to go with ours as well. Communal pot luck dinners around these parts will have you sampling different family favourites for sure in a traditional Newfoundland Cold Plate.

Newfoundland Cold Plate

While my own family does not keep up this Sunday supper tradition on a regular basis, on occasions when there is a surplus of leftover turkey, ham, or roast beef we do sometimes plan a cold plate for the next night. The best thing about it of course, is just setting the table and grabbing everything from the fridge.

So, with our leftover smoked pork loin and chicken breast as our cold cuts, I decided to make a new pasta salad for such a night. An open can of black beans and a lone lime which needed to be used soon, provided the inspiration for this flavourful chipotle lime pasta salad.

With nothing to do to prepare dinner, Spouse and I actually caught up on some PVR’ed TV in the afternoon; something that almost never happens. Hmmm… maybe I need to rethink that position on cold dinners after all.

Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad

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Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad

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Yield: 8-10 side dish servings

Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Bursting with fresh flavours, this Southwestern Chipotle Lime Pasta Salad makes a delicious side dish or add grilled shrimp or chicken for a complete meal.

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups uncooked fusilli pasta
• 1/2 cup cooked corn kernels
• 3/4 cup black beans cooked (rinse if using canned)
• 1 cup grape of cherry tomatoes cut in half if they are large.
• 2 green onions chopped

For the dressing

• 1/2 cup plain mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp chipotle powder or to taste
• pinch salt and pepper to season
• zest of one small lime finely minced
• juice of one small lime
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta in salted water, rinse well in cold water, drain well and add to a large mixing bowl.

2. To the bowl add the corn, black beans, green onions and tomatoes.

3. Mix all the remaining ingredients together to make the dressing, then add to the bowl and toss well with the other ingredients.

4. Transfer the pasta salad to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Nutrition Information

Yield

10

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 203Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 5mgSodium 98mgCarbohydrates 27gFiber 3gSugar 8gProtein 4g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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