Name: Bean Powered Pasta Salad
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 2 cups uncooked fusilli noodles ((equal to 3 cups cooked noodles)); 1 large Roma tomato, diced ((about 1 cup diced)); 1/3 cup green onion, thinly sliced; ½ cup black olives, quartered; 15.5 ounces dark kidney beans ((1 can or about 1 ½ cup drained)); 2 tbsp kidney bean juice; ¼ cup olive juice; 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar; freshly ground black pepper; 2 tsp olive oil

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This cold bean pasta salad is refreshing, healthy, and super easy and quick to toss together! If you have kids or picky eaters this is a must try. You'll be making the best of all the ingredients, using the bean and olive juice in the dressing!

white Corning Ware bowl with fusilli noodles, diced black olives, dark red kidney beans, diced green onion, diced tomato mixed together, all on a blue and white towel.

I'm loving this bean powered pasta salad! Especially with warmer weather, a cold pasta salad always hits the spot! I don't want something too heavy and it's a double win if I don't have to turn on my oven.

You can enjoy this pasta salad as a lunch dish, side dish, or a full dinner! I have the servings set at 3 on the recipe card which would be for a lunch portion. If you're enjoying this as a full dinner I would say it serves 2. If you ask my husband, it serves 1😋.

What's in This Pasta Salad?

I went with dark kidney beans for the protein in this pasta. You could easily change that up, but I think the flavor and texture of kidney beans is the best! Save the juice because you'll use some for the dressing!

Fusilli noodles are always a great option for cold pasta salads. They're easy to eat in one bite and they hold sauce and dressing well. You could use a shell noodle, penne, or macaroni as well.

I didn't want the spice from raw yellow or purple onion, so I went with a more mellow green onion. Also, we have load and loads of green onion growing all over our yard so the more reasons to use it the better! You could easily replace green onion with another type if you choose.

Black olives are sort of the secret weapon in this recipe. They add really great flavor and you'll use the juice in the dressing. It adds the salt in the pasta without needing any added sea salt!

Tomatoes add such great color and freshness so they're a must! I like to use Roma tomatoes because they have a little more meat on them and not as much of the juice and seeds. You could also use cherry tomatoes quartered.

For the dressing you'll combine bean juice, olive juice, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and black pepper. The apple cider vinegar adds a great punch without being too strong, and keeps the recipe kid friendly. You can easily start out with 1 tablespoon vinegar (which doesn't add much tang at all) then increase it to your liking. The same goes for the salt. You can start with 2 tablespoon olive juice (which is very low salt) and then increase as needed. The olive oil helps bind the dressing more to the pasta and helps create a smoother flavor.

Check the notes on the recipe card for a more mellow dressing recipe and follow the recipe as is for a wonderfully light but more flavorful dressing!

white Corning Ware bowl with fusilli noodles, diced black olives, dark red kidney beans, diced green onion, diced tomato mixed together. Wooden spoon in the background

Let's not get too technical and detailed with this recipe. It's super simple and extremely easy to change up as you wish. It will stay fresh for a few days in your fridge, but with the beans I wouldn't push it past that. Just enjoy!

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white Corning Ware bowl with fusilli noodles, diced black olives, dark red kidney beans, diced green onion, diced tomato mixed together with a wooden spoon in the bowl and all on a blue and white towel.

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