Summertime usually means lots of get-togethers and BBQ parties, which also means bring on the pasta salads!! They really are simple to make and a great side dish to pair with your burgers/hot dogs. This turkey taco pasta salad was amazing..I seriously couldn’t stop eating it! I have had something similar made with ground beef and using doritos in the past but I wanted to lighten it up and make it more freestyle friendly. I remember the first time I tried it I was skeptical having cold beef in my salad but I promise it is delicious! Makes 12- 1 cup servings at 4 smart points each.
Turkey taco pasta salad
2-4PP, 4SP blue, green & purple/per 1 cup serving *Note swap out the white pasta for whole wheat and it will be 2SP on purple
Ingredients
- 1 lb fat free ground turkey weighed raw
- 2.5 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 2 cups of cooked rotini style pasta I weighed pasta uncooked and picture below for my nutritional numbers, the 2 cups uncooked was 17SP
- 1 cup diced peppers I used green & yellow
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1 cup grape tomatoes cut in half
- 2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheese I used a 3 cheese blend
- 1/2 cup calorie wise catalina dressing or french dressing
- 1 tsp taco seasoning
- 4 taco shells crushed
Instructions
- Cook and drain your pasta and rinse under cold water.
- Brown your ground turkey and stir in the 2.5 Tbsp taco seasoning, drain and add to a bowl
- Add your pasta, peppers, onion, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, 1 tsp taco seasoning and dressing, stir well. Once you are ready to serve stir in your crushed taco shells *these are best added only when ready to serve as they will go soggy after a while.
- Store salad in the fridge, makes 12- 1 cup servings
Notes
Personal Points- 2-4 depending on your 0PP foodsÂ
Freestyle smart points- (Blue & purple) 4 using WW recipe builder *swap out white pasta for whole wheat and recipe is 2SP on purple
Smart Points- (green) 4 using SP calculator
Point Plus- 4 using PP calculator
Nutritional info.. Per serving (1 cup) Calories 171...Fat 3.7g...Sat fat 1.5g...Carbs 18.8g...Fiber 2.7g...Sugar 4.1g..Protein 14.4g using My Fitness Pal *Note, these numbers incl all ingredients so if entering into a WW calculator you may get a different point value
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
25 Comments
This looks delish. Thanks for an idea for lunch. Is the 2 C. pasta measured before or after cooking?
HI Mona, as mentioned in the post the pasta is weighed before cooking and I used the info from the box (as that info is for dry uncooked pasta)
Excellent idea to use canned premium chicken white meat too. I can’t wait to try it!
Great tip, thanks 🙂 I hope you enjoy it
How many points are the taco shells?
Hi Brittany, the ones I used were 2SP each
I think this would be good with shrimp substituted as a protein.
Sure, sounds good 🙂
Do you serve this warm or cold
This is a cold pasta salad.. I know it might seem weird lol and the first time I had something similar at a BBQ (but with ground beef) I was like ..wait..it’s cold? But it is sooo good!!
Making this for dinner tonight. So excited about this!
I hope you enjoyed it Kim 🙂
Made this tonight! It was really good! Thank you!
Hi Julie, so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Is there something that could be substituted for the Catalina or French Dressing?
you can try another dressing of choice, I mean it is going to change the overall taste of it but if you don’t like those dressing use one you like, Italian maybe 🙂 it will still be a tasty recipe
how long will this last in the fridge?
In a Tupperware I’d think up to 3 days
I was only able to get 7 (1) cup servings, I measured out 2 cups dried rotini after cooked it came out to 2 3/4 cups cooked pasta. I didn’t add the lettuce into the pasta mixture, I was afraid it might get soggy sitting in the refrigerator
Hmmm that seems very low when it makes 12 cups, you used 1 pound turkey correct? The lettuce does add 2 cups but you are still off a bit, sorry not too sure why you did not get the 12 cups I did, maybe a larger pasta?
Yup, I used 1 lb 99% ground turkey. I even used more than 1 cup bell peppers. It was delicious had for lunch today, next time I think I’ll try bowtie pasta to see if I’ll get 12 cups
Hi there, question on the pasta salad, how much would dressing be per serving if I put it on separately so it wouldn’t get soggy?
Thank you in advance!
Hi, my dressing for the amount used in the recipe was 8SP total
This was delicious, thanks for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed it Trish 🙂