Lemon Avocado Pasta Salad – Orzo pasta is tossed with fresh cherry tomatoes, creamy avocado, basil, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice to make a light, yet satisfying side dish for any meal

Okay, okay. I give in. I’ll start sharing some healthy recipes this month. But just for this month! By the time Valentine’s Day comes around, you guys will be begging for chocolate recipes again, I just know it.

For the first healthy recipe this month, I am sharing one of the recipes I learned from one of those meal delivery boxes we received last summer. Have you tried one of those services before? They send three recipes for the week with all the ingredients and you cook them yourself. We do it about once a month to help bring new recipes and foods into our weeknight dinner routine. After cooking so much for you guys, mama needs a little creativity break so these boxes help feed the family while I take a brain break.

This Lemon Avocado Pasta Salad was a side dish served alongside a fish entree that we made for one of those weeks. But honestly, I was so happy eating it all by itself! So much flavor and hearty because of the tomatoes and avocado. Love love loved it.

So I’ve recreated it here for you to try for yourself. Check it out!

This pasta salad is one of the easiest you’ll ever make. The dressing is nothing more than olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. You simply toss the cooked orzo pasta, diced avocado, chopped basil, and marinated tomatoes with the dressing. Boom – that’s it!

Another thing I love about this recipe is that you can make it for dinner tonight or make it ahead for a weekend get-together. When wanting to enjoy it immediately, the pasta salad is slightly warm because the pasta hasn’t had time to cool completely and the dish won’t be refrigerated. I kind of like it slightly warm because it helps the flavors come out of all the ingredients, especially the dressing. But, like I said, you can make this ahead, too, and simply chill in the fridge until time to serve.

This salad is so super simple to make so I’ have no doubt that you’re going knock it out of the park – just make sure you follow these few tips to help you along the way:

1. Do not over cook the pasta – you don’t want the pasta salad to be super mushy and starchy. So when the pasta is al dente, remove from heat, drain, AND rinse to get all that extra starch off the pasta.
2. Above I tell you that you can easily make this salad ahead of time. However, I would wait to add the avocado until serving because it can get brown. It will still taste great but presentation won’t be as pretty.
3. In this recipe, we marinate the tomatoes in vinegar before adding to the salad. This helps bring out the flavor of the tomato, plus it adds a little tang to the salad. I like to marinate the tomatoes first, before any other steps, so they have a good 30 minutes to marinate before adding to the salad.
4. The lemon flavor in the salad comes from the fresh lemon juice, but feel free to add a little lemon zest to give the salad a little more pop.

Alrighty, I did it – I finally gave you guys a healthy recipe for this month. I know this recipe still has pasta in it so it’s not the healthiest thing on the planet but this is still pretty healthy compared to the other recipes here on the blog. Baby steps!

Later this week, I’ve got a football snack recipe for you guys so, unfortunately, the healthy train isn’t going very far. But don’t worry – next week I’ll be back with another healthy recipe for you guys to enjoy this month!

See ya Wednesday!

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Other healthy dishes you might like:

Avocado and Charred Corn Salad with Creamy Cilantro Ranch

Orchard Harvest Salad with Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Pineapple & Melon Fruit Salad with Citrus Mint Dressing