Making an easy pasta salad recipe is the perfect way to enjoy leftover turkey.
How to Make Pasta Salad
Pasta salad recipes are my go to for quick and easy meals and potluck dishes! Everyone loves them and you can add anything to them from ham and pineapple (in our Hawaiian pasta salad) or this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad!
Pasta Choose a short shape with bumps or ridges to hold in some of the sauce. I’ve used bowties in this recipe. Protein Any type of leftovers will work, this recipe uses leftover roast turkey but you can use chicken or ham. Crunch Pecans and celery add a bit of crunch and texture to this salad. So good! Any nuts from almonds to walnuts will work well. Flavor Cranberries add sweetness, toasted pecans add flavor as do green onions (or red onions).
The first step, toasting the pecans adds a lot of flavor in this recipe. You can toast a just the amount called for in this recipe on the stovetop but I often toast up a larger batch in the oven. They’re perfect in this salad but also great to sprinkle on other salad recipes too. How to Toast Nuts: To toast nuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place them on a pan. Bake 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally. They don’t take long and can go from perfectly toasted to burnt in a matter of a minutes. Cool and enjoy!
Pasta Salad Dressing
I love a creamy poppy seed dressing for this recipe but any sort of creamy sweet dressing will work. Honey mustard dressing is great too. Shortcut Dressing: Creamy coleslaw dressing makes a great dressing for this pasta salad (store bought our homemade). Add in a sprinkle of poppy seeds.
More Great Ways to Enjoy Leftover Turkey
Turkey Pot Pie Turkey Tetrazzini Turkey Soup Slow Cooker Turkey Soup (Cajun Bean) Easy Broccoli Rice Casserole with Turkey Easy Turkey Wraps
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