Make the Caprese Pasta Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing and add grilled chicken. This salad is s cinch to make, and is perfect as a summer meal!
Pasta Salads are great on-the-go Meals!
These last couple of weeks have been very busy around here, as I’m sure they are in your homes too. The biggest challenge with these busy days are when activities land over the dinner hour. What’s a gal supposed to do? How am I supposed to feed the kids when we’re not even at home at dinner time? With quite a few of these days coming over the next month, I don’t want to feed the kids fast food…maybe once in a while, but not very often. So I’ve been trying to come up with easy and transportable meal ideas and this is proving to be harder than I thought. I’m going to have to get creative.
This Caprese Pasta Salad is loaded with flavour!
Last week I did have a major success with this Grilled Chicken Caprese Pasta Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing (you might have seen it on Instagram already). This pasta salad is loaded, LOADED, with flavour…basil, balsamic vinegar, grilled chicken, cheese…all so so delicious. And the great thing about this salad is that it’s great right after you make it, but it’s just as great served a couple of hours after it’s been made, which makes it perfect for eating on the go. So last week as we headed out to volleyball, I packed a tupperware container of this pasta salad for each of us, brought along some oatmeal raisin cookies and fresh fruit and we had a healthy dinner on the run.

Caprese Pasta Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Make the Caprese Pasta Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing and add grilled chicken. This salad is s cinch to make, and is perfect as a summer meal!
Ingredients
Grilled Chicken:
- 3 – 4 chicken breasts
- seasoning salt
Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
- 3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- salt & pepper to taste
Salad Ingredients:
- 4 cups of cooked noodles (I use a whole grain spaghetti noodle)
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup mini bocconcini cheese
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 3 tbsp grated parmesan
Instructions
- First, season the chicken breasts with the seasoning salt, and grill until cooked through.
- Cook noodles according to package directions. Strain, and toss lightly with olive oil (about 2 tsp). Set aside.
- While the chicken is grilling, combine all the ingredients for the dressing: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, mayonnaise and salt & pepper. Set aside.
- In a serving bowl, mix together the cooked noodles, fresh basil, chopped tomatoes, sliced onions, bocconcini cheese, spinach and parmesan cheese.
- Once the chicken is cooked, cut it into bite sized pieces, and add to the salad.
- Stir in the creamy balsamic vinegar dressing, and mix until everything is coated.
- You can serve this salad right away, or let it rest for up to an hour.
- Serve with extra fresh basil and parmesan cheese if you wish!
- Enjoy!
Keywords: caprese salad, caprese pasta salad
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Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to July? No schedules, no running around. Just easy breezy summer holidays…and sleeping in. Oh my word, I cannot wait to sleep in every. single. day. Sigh.
More Delicious Pasta Recipe to Try:
Have a delicious day!
13 Comments
nicolette @ momnivore's dilemma
June 5, 2015 at 9:32 PMHi there, old blog friend.
Looks lovely. I will save this idea for when my tomato and basil plants leave their infancy.
Great to see you still at it here. I miss blogging on this side of the coin. 🙂
With love,
Nicolette
[email protected]
June 8, 2015 at 1:41 PMWell hello there my friend, I’m so happy to see your name over here! I miss chatting with you! xo
AnnMarie
June 8, 2015 at 4:39 PMThis looks so good! A perfect meal for my husband and I as it has all the ingredients we love. Thank you! Pinned
Diane Roark
June 10, 2015 at 6:01 PMYour salad looks really delicious. Thanks for linking up to Wonderful Wednesday blog hop.
pinned
Blessings,
Diane Roark
Gail Akeman
June 11, 2015 at 12:44 PMThank you for joining the Small victories linkup. Please join again.
Carlee @cookingwithcarlee
June 12, 2015 at 9:22 AMThat looks delicious! It won’t be long and I can get those tomatoes and basil right out of the back yard!
Sarah
June 12, 2015 at 6:40 PMThis looks so yummy! I love anything with basil and balsamic… Found you at the Weekend Re-Treat.
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June 22, 2015 at 4:00 PMMe too! Best combination ever! 🙂
Katherines Corner
June 13, 2015 at 9:13 AMThank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. Watch for your feature on Monday xo
Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden
June 15, 2015 at 8:42 PMSounds delicious! Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty
Dee @CupcakesandCrowbars
June 17, 2015 at 11:09 AMThank you for sharing this post at Awesome Things Tuesday last week – you’ve been featured! We’d love to see you again sometime!
Theresa @DearCreatives
June 18, 2015 at 3:22 PMThanks for the recipe and sharing at the party! Hope to see you again soon. Pinned & shared.
plasterers bristol
July 1, 2015 at 11:49 PMThis sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon