Spinach Pasta Salad is the perfect side dish when serving a crowd or add chicken to make it a delicious summer dinner. Spinach Pasta Salad is definite crowd pleaser. And I know this for a fact because I have served this salad to crowd!!
I once fixed this spinach pasta salad for the American Mother’s State Convention luncheon. I have also served it to a church group of 450 woman! Yes, 450 people all at one time! Each and every time I fix it, I am inundated with requests for the recipe.
Last week a sweet friend emailed me about a salad someone had brought to her daughter’s book club that was delicious – she sent me the recipe and it was this recipe! The gal that brought it had been at the church dinner I served it at. So this one is a definite keeper!
This spinach pasta salad recipe was given to me by my husband’s cousin. She brought it to my in-law’s 80th birthday party. I I have made it countless times since that day.
One of the things I love about this salad is that it is a complete meal! It has spinach, chicken and pasta. Also, It is fairly inexpensive to make, so you can feed a crowd on a budget! It is also an easy one to stretch if you need to. Just add more spinach! Because of all the bright colors, it looks pretty on the plate too. Not to mention this spinach pasta salad has great textures! Lots of cruch with the water chestnuts, peanuts and sesame seeds!
If you ever need a meal to feed 400 or a delicious summer dinner for your family, this spinach pasta salad is the perfect recipe for both!
Some of my other favorite salad recipes include:
Some of my favorite tools I used to make SPINACH PASTA SALAD:
PASTA/SALAD BOWLS – these pretty white bowls work for pasta, salad or soup.
6 PIECE MEASURING CUP SET – Everyone needs at least one set of measuring cups, I have 4 sets!
MAGNETIC MEASURING SPOONS – I love these things. They are magnetic so they stay together in the drawer!
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Spinach Pasta Salad Recipe
Spinach Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 oz. bow tie pasta cooked al dente
Dressing
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2/3 cup Teriyaki Sauce
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 6 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 10 oz. bag of spinach
- 1 cup bag craisins
- 2 11 oz. cans mandarin oranges drained
- 1 5 oz. can sliced water chestnuts drained
- 2-3 green onions chopped
- 2 Tbsp sesame seeds toasted
- 1 cup peanuts
- 2 cups cooked chicken cut into pieces
Instructions
- Blend dressing in blender. Set aside 1/2 cup to dress salad with later.
- Mix remaining dressing and cooked pasta and marinade for 2 hours (in a ziploc bag)
- Combine other ingredients. Add add pasta and liquid in the bag. Toss. Add reserved dressing as needed.
Nutrition
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Originally posted May 21, 2008
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I have made this recipe over and over and was pleased that you have it in your “card” file. Delicious!
So glad you love it as much as I do!
How do you keep the pasta from turning brown in the marinade? Mine was the color of a brown paper bag. It tasted all right but didn’t look anything like the photo which accompanied the recipe.
It could be a couple of things. The longer you marinade the pasta, the more it absorbs and gets darker. Also, the type of teriyaki sauce might effect it too and the color.
Not a big fan of mandarin oranges. Could I use strawberries instead?
Absolutely! Use whatever fruit you prefer.
All nice salads. Thanks so much Leigh Anne.
Sounds great! Is there some dressing I could buy instead of making with all the different ingred.?
I have only ever made it with the homemade dressing but a store bought balsamic vinaigrette may work nicely
So glad everyone enjoyed them.
Leigh Anne,
I tried this salad tonight and you were right! It is a crowd pleaser! I got rave reviews. Thanks for sharing it.
Kerri
So glad it was a hit. Love that salad!!
I made this salad for our Stake Women’s Conference this past weekend. It was delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Laurie, This salad is really one of my all time favorites. So glad you enjoyed it. It is a hit everytime I serve it.
Any where from 10-15 depending on portion size. It is easy to stretch with a little more spinach.
How many does the original recipe serve. I need to serve approx 100 ladies.
Susan~ I made this for a luncheon for 50 people last Wednesday. This is how I prepared it and it worked out great. I grilled the chicken and made the dressing and refrigerated two days before. The day before I boiled the pasta and once cooled transferred to a large zip lock bag. I drained all of the water chestnuts and madarin oranges and placed them in smaller zip locks. I toasted the sesame seeds and almonds (I used them instead of peanuts.) I also chopped the green onions and parsley. So…..at this point everything is ready to go. The morning of the luncheon I combined some of the dressing into the bags of pasta. About 20 minutes before I was ready to serve I combined all the ziplocks with the spinach in a large bowl and put a light coating of the dressing throughout. (This was Leigh suggestion….not more than 30 minutes before serving, she suggested.) I combined more of the ingredients later to replace the large empty bowl. I will tell you that everyone loved it and asked for the recipe. I hope this helps. I served it without a practice run through as well!
I am planning to make this for a luncheon and was hoping I could prepare at least some of it in advance – as much as a day or two. For the flavors to soak in optimally, should the blended dressing be room temperature when poured over the pasta to marinate in the refrigerator? If the pasta marinates for 12+ hours instead of 2 – and the salad is mixed and refrigerated (separate from the pasta & dressing) the day before it is to be served – and then all combined and refrigerated for several hours before serving – will it still look and taste fresh?
Some recipes call for mixing the spinach with the other ingredients into cooled pasta and then refrigerating until ready to serve. I prefer the ingredients in your recipe but don’t have time to experiment before serving. Thanks in advance for your reply(ies)! 🙂
How long before you serve this can you mix everything together? I am worried about it getting soggy but am serving it to a large group and need to have it ready to go. Thanks!
Spinach doesn’t hold for a long time, especially if it is hot. I always mix it up right before serving. If you can keep it cool and go light on the dressing you could do it ahead of time but no more than 30 minutes. Enjoy!
Made this last week! Delicious! My 2.5 year old quadruplets & my 7 year old son even LOVED it! Thanks so much for a new summer recipe! =)
I doubled this recipe and made it for my Texas Holdem group of 20. Everyone raved about this salad ! Thank you so much for the recipe. It is a definite keeper!!
i found the sauce at safeway. it’s in the area of the teriyaki sauce. however, it was only available in a LARGE jug! but it was just 8 bucks. once you take a sniff of the stuff, i don’t think you’ll mind having a bunch of it. i can’t wait to marinade some chicken in it.
thanks for the recipe! i’m making a huge batch as we speak :O)
I made this salad yesterday too, the ladies at my mid week luncheon loved it and took most of the leftover home. I love this salad!!
Paula »
I buy it at Costco. Mr Yoshida lives here in Portland so it is easy to find! If you can’t find it you could just use teriyaki sauce. I think the gourme sauce is a little sweeter so just taste and see if the dressing might need a bit more sugar. Enjoy!
Linda,
If you are serving as a meal and not a side, one recipe, 20 oz. of spinach will feed 10 but when feeding a crowd I buy the 40 oz. bags of spinach from Costco and that will feed 20. I use the same amounts of everything else – this recipe really stretches! I just make up some extra dressing and add in more as I go to make sure it’s not too dry. Sorry this isn’t more exact. It’s one of those recipes that I just throw things in by the handful and make it stretch to feed how many people I have – add a little more spinach, add a little more dressing etc.
Hi-Where do you find Yoshida’s gourmet sauce?? And if I can’t find it in my area-what could I substitute? Love your recipes!!!
Leigh Anne this looks so yummy! How many servings would you say for this size of recipe?