Ham Pasta Salad With Ranch Dressing
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This creamy and cheesy ham pasta salad recipe is the perfect spring and summer supper. Who can say no to a dish overflowing with tender smoked ham, pasta, lots of fresh veggies, and ranch dressing?
The question I’ve been asked the most this week amid record high temperatures is “What can I cook for supper that won’t heat up the kitchen?”. So I whipped up one of my favorite pasta salads to post for ya real quick. This one is filled with smoked ham (the smoked part is important), tomatoes, cucumbers, English peas (I guess that means they talk with a British accent), cheese, and bowtie pasta. It’s all tied together with a creamy ranch dressing.
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen to whip up this quick and easy ham pasta salad recipe. Chop the ham and veggies while the pasta boils, then combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pop it in the fridge for an hour or several to let all the flavors mingle and voila, that’s how you make my creamy ham pasta salad.
Now, before we go further, I just wanna say these are my ingredients. But feel free to alter the recipe to use up what you have on hand or to suit your personal tastes. If you don’t like cucumber, leave it out. Alternatively, if you can’t get enough of carrot, pop them in. If this cold pasta salad doesn’t suit your family’s tastes, don’t fret because they’re not the ones making this ~grins~. It’s good to be the cook!
Let’s make supper.. or lunch… or a mid-day snack.
Recipe Ingredients
- Bowtie pasta
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Grape tomatoes
- Frozen peas
- Bell pepper
- Cucumber
- Ranch dressing
- Smoked ham
How to Make Ham Pasta Salad
First, we’re going to boil our pasta according to the package directions. Drain in a colander and pour running cold water over pasta, while stirring, until completely cooled. Allow the pasta to drain fully before pouring it into a large bowl.
While that’s boiling, dice up your ham into nice bite-sized pieces or smaller, peel and chop up cucumber, and chop up your bell pepper.
Now we’re going to combine everything in a big ol’ bowl. First goes the pasta.
Then add the ham…
the shredded cheddar cheese…
the thawed frozen peas…
the cucumber…
the bell pepper…
the grape tomatoes…
and finally, add in your dressing.
Now we’re going to stir up our ham pasta salad really well.
Cover and refrigerate until chilled and ready to serve.
If you’re hungry, eat some now and I won’t tell.
Dig in!
Storage
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
- There are so many ways to make this ham and cheese pasta salad recipe your own. Let’s take a look:
- Use whatever meat you like. This might be shredded chicken breast, rotisserie chicken, leftover turkey breast, leftover ham, or cooked bacon.
- Add whatever frozen or fresh vegetables you like as well. Some other suggestions include corn, red onion or green onion, broccoli, and celery.
- Use a different salad dressing. Many recipes opt for just mayonnaise or Italian dressing.
- Use half cheddar cheese and half shredded parmesan cheese if you like.
- For pickle fans, add 1/2 cup of drained dill pickle relish.
- Use whatever small pasta you have on hand, whether that’s elbow macaroni pasta, small shell pasta, or rotini.
- Whenever I need smoked ham for a quick recipe, I just go to the deli counter and ask for a single slice that is about 1/2-inch thick. That is the perfect size for dicing up and using in recipes. The smoked ham adds a wonderful flavor to this meal.
- You don’t need to cook the frozen peas. Just let them thaw a bit while you prepare this and they’ll be fine.
Check out these other sensational salad recipes:
Old-Fashioned Ham Salad Recipe
Recipe for Caprese Salad with Chicken and Avocado
Chicken Salad Recipe for Sandwiches
Broccoli Salad With Bacon and Raisins
The BEST German Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box bowtie pasta 1 pound
- 1-2 cups diced smoked ham
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup frozen peas thawed slightly
- 1 peeled and chopped large cucumber
- 1/2 diced bell pepper
- 1-2 cups grape tomatoes
- 1 cup buttermilk ranch dressing
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander and pour running cold water over pasta, while stirring, until completely cooled. Allow the pasta to drain fully before pouring it into a large bowl.1 box bowtie pasta
- Add all other ingredients to the large bowl and stir until well combined.1-2 cups diced smoked ham, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1 cup frozen peas, 1 peeled and chopped large cucumber, 1/2 diced bell pepper, 1 cup buttermilk ranch dressing, 1-2 cups grape tomatoes
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Keeps well for three days in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.
Brother David Steindl-Rast
this recipe looks like a perfect one to take on July 4th potluck, thanks Christy.
I am so thankful for the air conditioning because I can come out of the sun and heat I am thankful for which gives me tomatoes and other veggies to eat after I water them with the precious resource we have. I use rain barrels and I am always very happy when I see just a small amount of rain. I am in the South Texas Coastal Bend and it is extremely hot and humid here. Thankful for all things that make life livable here.
It does sadden me that there are lots of folks around here that do not have air conditioning and each year the local television station does a fan roundup for donations to deliver fans to the folks who really need them. My A/C went out one a couple summers back and it was miserable the two weeks I had to wait for it to be fixed, fans just don’t do the summer heat and humidity cooling off well enough. Yes, I am (we as a whole) are spoiled by our abundance. Thanks for the reminder.
Heat always makes me incredibly grateful for iced tea, watermelon, and my refrigerator. If I didn’t have a refrigerator in this heat all the milk would go bad and my lil’ brother and sister would go nuts without their milk. Ooh~ and ice cold rivers to go swimming in. 🙂
Growing up in New Orleans before a/c, we had a round floor fan, about three feet in diameter with a bakelite top. It lived in the living room, and we all sat around it every night watching Huntley & Brinkley. It was sometimes just too hot to sleep.
My great-grandmother’s house next door had a whole-house attic fan. At night you’d close all the windows except the bedroom ones, and that attic fan would suck air through the open windows. It really cooled things down – you’d need to sleep under at least a sheet – but it was like sleeping in a tropical storm, with that wind blowing through!
So I am verrry grateful to have air conditioning in SE Louisiana now.
I was thankful for the coolness of early morning. I pulled weeds from the flower beds and raked magnolia leaves from 6 am until 8. I waved to folks walking to and fro from the Pig and decided to do the other bed tomorrow morning! Tomorrow I might start at 5am and really be cool.
I am so thankful that we don’t have to ride an unairconditioned bus to South Missouri to my grannys to pick blackberries.. this week..as I was growing up (born in 1946) My mom didn’t drive and we lived in Oklahoma, so on my moms birthday June 26th it was always the rule that we went “back home” and picked blackberries and then we all helped make blackberry jelly and jam, and if we were good we got a blackberry cobbler..!!! The blackberries are 4 times as big as these little puny Oklahoma ones…. so now I am lucky enough to just go buy a box of them..My kids have no idea… nor my grandkids….. although I did take them camping in the summer time a lot…that’ll toughen you up in the summer..but you will also have a lake or river to jump in… Love ya girl… you have been like a sister I never had, ever since I found you…Still have your first cookbook…and the other too… you are like a member of the family… because if I say its Christys recipe around here, they know who I am talking about… you and Paula( you know which one) and if you haven’t tried Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman site… she is a ranch wife in Oklahoma and cooks like all of us do, haha.. sometimes a little fancier…but she is a keeper too…
And how about how thankful I am for the interenet and being able to use it!
wow
hugs jo in Sapulpa Oklahoma
I am grateful for a wonderful husband who has given me a wonderful life.
Air conditioning, my family and my church. Your recipes so that I can whip up something good and quick!
Grateful 1st for My Savior, water, a/c and this may not seem like much to people today but ice maker, hot water heater. Remember when we had to heat water, fill up ice trays, did laundry outside even in winter, had to build fires under big wash pots. Thankful that I live now, in this modernized world.