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Corn, Tomato, and Avocado Pasta Salad. If you’re going to eat a salad today, it should probably be this salad. It’s the perfect quick fix salad that’s almost no cook and comes together in minutes. Grab your favorite pasta, fresh cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, basil, cheddar cheese, and an avocado…toss it all together, and done. It’s summery, healthy, and so good!
The saying around the Gerard household is that simple is the best, and the more recipes I create, the more I really realize this. Sure, I also love a recipe that takes more time to make, and you know I love spending time baking up my favorite layer cakes, but when it comes to everyday cooking, I’m all about simple.
I spent some time talking to my aunt and uncle this past weekend and they were telling me how they love good food…but simple food. High quality ingredients that just taste really good. As I was talking to them something kind of clicked in my head and it made me realize that as long as you have really good ingredients, you can make a simple, delicious recipe. A recipe doesn’t have to have a whole bunch of ingredients or be hard to make. It just needs fresh quality ingredients.
That’s kind of this salad. It’s probably one of the simpler recipes I have on HBH, and quite honestly, I should probably be saving it for Super Simple Thursday, but this pasta salad just felt like a fun way to kick the week off. Like I said above, if you’re going to eat salad today, why not make it of the pasta filled kind, you know?
With August here, the summer produce is at its peak. This makes cooking with fresh ingredients easier than any other time of year.
Enter in this fresh corn, tomato, and avocado salad. It’s summer in a bowl. It’s also so delicious, pretty healthy (try using brown rice or lentil pasta to make it even healthier), and highlights all of summer’s best in season produce.
OK. Details. Details.
To start, find your favorite short cut pasta. I used an organic variety from Costco that I love using for pasta salads, but use your personal favorite. To give this salad even more of a health boost, use brown rice pasta, whole grain, or even a lentil pasta. All would be really great in this salad!
As mentioned, this is a QUICK and almost no cook recipe. While the pasta is boiling (the only cooking you will do), prep all the remaining ingredients. For the fresh corn, you have a few options. I personally like to leave the corn raw and toss it up with the hot pasta. The heat from the pasta will warm the corn, but still leaves it with a nice bite, which I love. If you’re not a fan of raw corn, you can used grilled corn or toss the corn in with the boiling pasta water for a few minutes until it is cooked.
The rest of the salad is a mix of cherry tomatoes, herbs, avocado, and cheddar cheese. Good summer flavors.
Here’s the key to this pasta. As soon as you drain the pasta, toss it with the herbs and cheddar cheese while the pasta is still steaming. Hot pasta equals melty cheese, which equals extra delicious pasta. Trust me on this. I know this may not be the usual way to make a pasta salad, but guys, it’s good!
Once you’ve tossed the pasta, add the remaining ingredients and serve. You can eat this warm or at room temperature, but me being the hot food lover that I am, I like this best while it is still a little warm.
Also, this is great recipe for back to school lunches or bring to work lunches. The pasta holds up really well in the fridge and would be great to make on a Sunday for the week ahead. Just add the avocado the day of, so that it doesn’t get brown.
It’s kind of as quick and easy as that. What I love most about this pasta recipe is that it really does use some of summer’s best ingredients. So if you have a surplus of fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, and basil lying around, this is the recipe to make.
OH, and I have to mention, if you have any other herbs on hand besides the basil, say thyme and or oregano, throw them in too, they would be awesome in this. Use what you have or what you love! It’s always important to adapt recipes to your taste!
If you make this corn, tomato, and avocado pasta salad, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you. Oh, and of course, if you do make this pasta, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram so I can see! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Watch the How To Video:
Corn, Tomato, and Avocado Pasta Salad
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 752 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 1 pound short cut pasta
- 1 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 1 cup cubed sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan, manchego, or pecorino cheese
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
- 1 pinch crushed red peppers flakes
- 1 pinch (each) kosher salt and pepper
- 4 ears grilled or steamed corn, kernels removed from the cobb
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 avocado, diced
Instructions
- 1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain.2. Meanwhile, add the basil, olive oil, cheddar, parmesan, lemon juice, chives, and a pinch each of crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to a large serving bowl. Add the hot pasta and toss vigorously to combine. 3. Add the corn, and tomatoes, tossing to combine. Top the pasta with avocado. Season with freshly cracked pepper and salt.
This post was originally published on August 6, 2018
Was looking for something as a side dish to go with your BBQ chicken (my FAVE!!)– this is perfect! I can’t wait to try it! Will be adding spinach and cucumber for some more greens– wish me luck that it will still taste as delicious as your recipe.
I love your recipes and do not normally comment but just wanted to say I think Aiden is way off base. If such an opinion must be shared, it certainly could be done in a less biting way. Having said that, I love seeing simple recipes like this one-I just thought today that I’d like to make a simple pasta salad to take to the pool with me for an easy to eat, summery snack or meal and I’m going to use this as a base to make it my own. It also led me to the white bean and goat cheese pasta salad that will definitely make it into my kitchen next week, if not sooner.
It’s nice to know that someone as skilled in the kitchen as you still appreciates the simple dishes, too and I love seeing the variety in posts. Made the garlic butter creamed corn chicken last week for meal prep and it was the tastiest thing I’d eaten in months!!! Kudos to you ?
Hi Naseem! Thank you for this comment! I am so happy to hear that you love my work and enjoy reading just a sweet message! xTieghan
Simple and fresh—we loved it. Subbed artichoke for the corn since it’s what I had on hand and added bell pepper and shredded rotisserie chicken. It was the perfect summer dinner. Thanks so much—you’ve never steered me wrong!
I love to hear that! Thank you so much for trying this Kelly! xTieghan
This is sooooo good! I just made it as a side for Father’s Day dinner and I can’t stop eating it. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Thank you Joelle! xTieghan
I love this!! I made it yesterday and the whole family loved it.
That is amazing! Thank you so much Tammy! xTieghan
WOW! This was so delicious and flavorful and easy to make. I don’t think this recipe was a waste of time like another reader saidbecause I’ve been cooking for 20 years and am just fresh out of ideas to throw together something. Well done?
Hi Shayne! That is so sweet. I am so glad you loved this recipe! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
This recipe looks SO good. I can’t wait to try it when cherry tomatoes are back in season…let the count down begin (I also just emailed your Greek watermelon feta salad to myself in preparation for summer). With two kids at home under 3, it is sometimes a struggle to find recipes that they get excited about and that don’t require a ton of man hours in the kitchen. So I do appreciate these posts and we’ll let you know how it goes in another month or so! I am sure the kids will give it their stamp of approval! Thank you, and love, the continuous posts and great ideas.
I am so glad you find these helpful, Tamra! I hope you love all of the summer recipes and they are all easy on you! Thank you! xTieghan
I loved this! I guess the fact that I googled for a recipe for warm avocado salad shows my lack of cooking skills/knowledge. This was easy to follow, I changed the basil to flat leaf parsley as that’s all I had, and used canned sweetcorn, but your recipe gave me the idea and confidence to give it a go. Think it took me longer to convert measurements to UK weights than it did to make 😀 I’ll definitely be making again… and using as base to experiment. Thank you
Thank you so much Lisa! I am so glad this turned out so well! xTieghan
I really enjoy this, can it also be done in the southern hemisphere?
Of course! I hope you love this Lugar! Thank you!
I made this recipe and I was so impressed that such a simple recipe can taste this good! I didn’t have any cherry tomatoes and it still tastes great. I added chilly flakes and used Parmesan. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jenn! I am so glad you loved this recipe! Thank you so much!
This was so incredibly easy to make and so delicious!! It is the perfect summer side dish. This pasta will definitely be featured a lot at my home!
Thank you Grace!
Hi, This recipe is delicious. I made it for dinner last night and the flavors are great. I added grilled chicken to the recipe too. It’s perfect for the hot and humid days this summer. It came together in no time and can’t wait to make it again.
I loved this ! thank you so much.
keep your recipes coming ! I just wish I had more time to try all of them !
Thank you so much Kristine! I am so glad you loved this!
My husband called this the best pasta salad he’s ever had, so i have to give it 5 stars 🙂
Wow that is so amazing! Thank you Barb!
Very good! Was put of lemons so subbed red wine vinegar. I also grilled some zucchini and added it with the other veggies. Served with grilled chicken.
Thank you so much Kara! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I made this last night and everyone loved it! The pictures looked so good I decided to double the recipe and now we have leftovers for lunch. I’ve been following you for a few years and always appreciate all of your creativity and recipes. It’s nice to have a recipe that I know I can throw together with ease and is a hit it my family. Thank you!
Thank you so much Kara! I am so glad you loved this recipe!