When you take the crowd-pleasing flavors and textures of cowboy caviar and turn them into a hearty pasta salad, magic happens. My Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad combines all the fresh, zesty goodness of the classic chip dip with ditalini pasta, creamy mozzarella pearls, and savory diced ham. The result is a satisfying main dish that’s perfect for cookouts, potlucks, or stay-at-home weeknight dinners when you want something fresh but filling. My smoky, Mexican-spiced vinaigrette ties everything together with just the right amount of tang and heat.
SoupAddict likes to play with her food
If you’ve followed this site for a while, you know that I love to take meals — especially take-out favorites — and transform them into tasty soups. I’m realizing now this applies to a whole range of foods beyond soup: From the moment I saw cowboy caviar (a.k.a., Texas caviar) in a bowl, I knew that its next best destiny — in this household anyway — was to become a full-on pasta salad.
And it’s no surprise at all that it worked just beautifully!
The original 1940s recipe, created by chef Helen Corbitt, has evolved from a simple, pickled black-eyed pea dish to its current chunky and veggie-loaded form. It’s usually eaten as a dip scooped up with tortilla chips or other type of sturdy cracker. It’s so hearty, though, that promoting it to a side dish or pasta salad can be the only logical next step.
My recipe here is party-sized, so if you’re making it for a small family meal, feel free to cut it more or less in half. Although, I can attest that it stores fabulously in the fridge for days, and makes leftovers for lunch a thing to look forward to!
Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad is —
- A meal-worthy twist on the popular dip that’s a satisfying main course.
- Packed with flavor and nutrients thanks to the fresh veggies, beans, savory ham, and a smoky, zesty vinaigrette.
- Easy to prep ahead and perfect for potlucks, picnics, BBQs, or a simple weeknight dinner at home with the fam.
- Great served cold, making it ideal for hot weather when you just don’t want to turn on the oven.
This chilled pasta salad has joined some of my other favorite pastas during this relentlessly hot summer. You might enjoy them, too, including my Dill Pickle Pasta Salad, Cold Spaghetti Salad, and Summer Shrimp & Pancetta Pasta Salad. They’re refreshing and satisfying, but won’t weigh you down.
Key Ingredients
Pasta — I personally love the texture of the chunky cowboy caviar dip, so my goal with the pasta salad version was to stay true to its consistency. Use a small pasta, like ditalini, elbow macaroni, or shells to keep the pasta from overwhelming the other ingredients on the fork.
Peppers — I’ll take any excuse to indulge my love of the pepper. My recipe here keeps things mild so that everyone can enjoy this pasta salad at your parties and cookouts, but I do call for a few varieties of peppers: raw bell peppers, roasted red peppers, and sweet salad peppers. If you don’t mind the extra chopping, a rainbow of bell pepper colors adds extra visual appeal. Sweet salad peppers have been my personal favorite this summer. They’re pickled sweet, like bread and butter pickles, only with banana peppers instead of cucumbers.
Black-eyed peas — Black-eyed peas, which are actually beans, not peas (although both beans and peas are legumes), are the traditional choice for the dip, and I like them here, too. Of course, you can easily substitute any other bean of similar size and texture, such as black beans, pinto beans, or great northern beans. A quick note: My recipe here leans heavier on the pasta than on beans. You can easily tip the scale in the other direction by using just 1 cup of dried pasta and adding an extra can of beans.
Ham and cheese — To make sure this pasta salad is meal-worthy, I added a generous portion of diced ham and a package of those cute little mozzarella pearls (which are the perfect size for a pasta salad!). The brand of black-eyed peas that I used had a smoky, pork-shank quality to it that perfectly matched the ham.
Vinaigrette — I’m not normally an all-homemade-all-the-time snob, but in thinking through what kind of dressing should top this pasta, nothing store-bought matched what I had in mind. My vinaigrette is smoky, zesty, slightly sweet and tangy, with just a hint of heat. It’s so good!
How to Make Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
Ready to make the recipe? Skip to the recipe card now to see the full ingredient list, quantities, prep/cooking times, and printable, detailed instructions. Or, keep scrolling for a visual walk-through of making the pasta salad.
Prep notes
Here’s a quick guide for prepping the ingredients, if you need it (not including anything that simply needs to be measured out of a container, such as dried herbs and liquids).
- Clean the bell pepper(s) and remove the seeds. Slice all of the peppers into small, roughly equal dice.
- Slice the red onion in half, peel off the papery skin, and then chop into small dice, discarding the root and stem ends of the bulb. Soak in water for 15 minutes and drain (to cut its sharpness).
- Clean and pat dry the cilantro leaves, removing any thick stems, and then mince.
Make the vinaigrette
In a small mixing bowl, add all of the dressing ingredients and whisk until smooth. I’m using a milk frother in the photo above. It’s not necessary but it does emulsify the oil faster than whisking by hand.
Assemble the salad
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Rinse with cold water to cool. Add the pasta and the rest of the salad ingredients to a large serving bowl. Gently mix the layers of ingredients.
Toss and serve
Drizzle the vinaigrette over the pasta and toss gently to incorporate. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to both chill the salad and let all of the flavors meld.
Storing
This pasta salad keeps amazingly well in the refrigerator for several days. If you’ll be storing it for more than 8 hours, set aside some of the dressing (or make more) to loosen the pasta salad before serving. (Store the extra dressing separately in the refrigerator.)
Do you think this might just become your new go-to summer pasta salad? Let me know in the comments!
Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of the liquids from the pickled peppers (below)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
For the pasta salad:
- 2 cups dried ditalini pasta
- 15 ounce can black eyed peas , rinsed and drained
- 8 ounces mozzarella pearls
- 1/2 cup cubed ham
- 1/2 cup frozen corn , rinsed briefly under cold water, drained and patted dry
- 1/2 cup diced bell peppers (all one color, or a mix of green, yellow, red)
- 1/2 cup diced red onions , soaked in water for 15 mins and drained
- 1/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers
- 1/4 cup chopped sweet salad peppers (or pickled jalapeños)*
- 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
- salt and black pepper
Instructions
Make the dressing:
- Add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth (a milk frother works well, too). Set aside.
Make the pasta salad:
- Cook the pasta in a small pot according to the package directions. Drain, and rinse well with cold water until the pasta is no longer hot.
- Transfer the cooled pasta to a large serving bowl. Add all of the remaining salad ingredients to the bowl and toss gently. Season with a couple of pinch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the pasta salad and toss. Drizzle again to coat the pasta to your preference (i.e., lots of dressing or less for sort of dry). (Extra dressing can be stored in the fridge.)
- Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours to let all of the flavors meld.