Most of the salad recipes on my blog are summer salad recipes but today I am sharing the recipe for a salad that’s more suitable for the colder days. The recipe is for cranberry pasta salad. It’s a pasta salad with dried cranberries, chickpeas, vegetables, and nuts. The best part of the salad is its silky sweet, sour, and savory spiced dressing that coats all the ingredients. Though it has autumn flavors, it’s made with ingredients that are easily available throughout the year at almost the same price. So, if you are missing holiday flavors in the non-holiday season, make this tasty pasta cranberry salad and enjoy it. And, if you want to try more pasta salad recipes then you can try my rainbow oro salad, pesto orzo salad, chickpea orzo feta salad, and sundried tomato pasta salad.
What’s needed to make cranberry pasta salad?
To make this cranberry pasta salad, you will need the following ingredients:
Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions
Pasta: You can use any shortcut pasta to make this salad. Chickpeas: Homecooked or canned, both are fine. You can use other beans too like kidney beans, cannellini beans, etc. Baby spinach: Feel free to use any salad green of your choice. Roasted almonds: Instead of almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, or cashew nuts can also be added. Just dry roast the nuts before using. The nuts become crunchier and tastier after roasting. Maple syrup: You can also use agave syrup, honey, or sugar. Balsamic vinegar: Red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar can also be used.
Other ingredient details and nutritional information are shared in the recipe card.
How to make (step-by-step instructions)?
Step 1: Put cranberry juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dried cranberries, minced garlic, salt, chili flakes, cinnamon, rosemary, ground black pepper, salt, maple syrup, and cornstarch in a cooking pot. Step 2: Cook while continuously whisking until the dressing thickens. Turn off the heat and keep the dressing aside. Allow it to reach room temperature. Step 3: Cook pasta al dente and strain. Step 4: Transfer cooked pasta to a large salad bowl. Step 5: Add baby spinach and cover the leaves with cooked pasta so that the leaves get slightly wilted with the heat. Step 6: Add chickpeas, onion, cucumber, celery, and chopped roasted almonds. Step 7: Pour the salad dressing. Step 8: Gently toss. Your holiday special cranberry pasta salad with chickpeas is ready to be enjoyed.
How to serve?
This pasta salad can be paired with a lot of different dishes. Some of the dishes that I like serving with it are grilled or boiled corn on the cob, roasted vegetables, baked potato wedges, garlic bread, and bruschetta.
Storing tips
Store the leftover salad in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3-4 days. The dressing stored separately in an airtight container will be fine for around a week in the refrigerator.
Recipe tips and tricks
You can use any shortcut pasta in this salad. Feel free to replace chickpeas with beans of your choice. Cook pasta al dente and toss it gently while mixing it with other ingredients. You can also add other ingredients like orange zest, lemon zest, blueberries, black raisins, nutmeg, etc to the cranberry dressing. Use cranberry juice without added sugar. If it has sugar, skip maple syrup in the recipe. Season the dressing well otherwise the salad will taste bland. You may also add roasted vegetables to make the salad tastier and healthier.
Frequently asked question
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