BLT gluten free pasta salad, with spinach or other baby greens, is a quick and easy way to enjoy a restaurant-quality meal at home without breaking the bank—or heating up the kitchen.
This isn’t your typical mayonnaise-style pasta salad (not that there’s anything wrong with that sort). It’s a main dish pasta salad, but it’s served warm, not hot.
Plus it’s ready in less than 20 minutes, from start to finish. All you need on hand is some fresh baby greens (any kind you like—I like a mixture of arugula, baby kale and baby spinach), cherry tomatoes, thick-cut bacon, dried pasta and a grated semi-hard cheese.
My family loves asiago cheese, since it adds so much flavor and aroma, but the same could be said of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. If you’re dairy free, try replacing the sour cream with a nondairy sour cream and the grated cheese with nutritional yeast (if you haven’t tried nutritional yeast, you should!).
Gluten free pasta
Gluten free pasta is sort of notorious both for not having a proper texture, and not holding an acceptable texture once chilled in the refrigerator. First of all, you need the proper gluten free dried pasta (my favorite, hands down, is Barilla) that boils perfectly every time—without any special treatment.
Be sure to check out the comments to this post, though. There are a lot of great suggestions for other dried gluten free pasta brands that seem to have the goods.
A trick I use is tossing the cooked pasta with a bit of oil, then covering it and storing it at room temperature. It will retain a perfect al-dente texture without any extra effort. If you do boil the pasta ahead of time, this is really going to be the fastest, most satisfying dinner in the history of ever.
Variations
I’ve made this with a couple variations already, all with fabulous results. I’ve tried it with blanched cauliflower florets in place of the greens (or in addition to the greens), and with sundried tomatoes added at the sour cream stage.
This dish is also lovely served at room temperature entirely, and would make a great pack-and-go summer meal for the beach.
I’m not sure I would have thought to make a pasta sauce with a sour cream, bacon and garlic base on my own, but no worries. Chef John did it for me!
Click play ▶️ below and watch me make this lovely little dish. It may be hot outside, but we’re gonna eat well!
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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We have had a lot of success with Tiki Joy (brown rice) pastas! I’ve used the lasagna (Spinach Lasagna) penne, and fusilli pastas. They hold together and taste great!
This recipe looks yummy! Does anyone have a recommendation for dairy-free sour cream that is not made from coconut?
Hi, Sharon,
Follow Your Heart brand has a soy-based dairy-free sour cream. Their products are generally quite good. I’d try that!
I also really like Barilla. It seems to be the closest to “real” pasta. My friends and family eat it with no complaints. Ronzoni is pretty good, too, but I can stick up on Barilla at BJ’s. 😊 This recipe looks really good, and I’ll have to add this to my collection.
Ooooh Barilla at BJ’s, Julie! I always order it on Amazon. I wonder how the price compares. Thanks for the tip! I think Ronzoni GF pasta is just awful. I wanted to love it, but just couldn’t. It always falls apart. It feels like Second Class Pasta.
This looks amazing & will have to give it a shot. If Mom will allow it that is. Being Celiac is hard as it is, but add in non supportive Family & it’s quadrupled. :o/. Anyway….I just wanted to add Catelli’s GF Pasta line for my fellow Canadians to the line of great GF Pastas out there. It’s a mix of rice, quinoa & something else I’m blanking on ATM & is the best GF Pasta I’ve tried.
Just thought I’d add that there. Both for other Canadians checking this recipe out & also for anyone planning a visit up here this Summer. Catelli can be found in all of the major Grocery stores up here, as well as Wal Mart.
Hope all of you had a wonderful Fourth of July!!!
Have you (has anyone here) tried Bonta d’Italia pasta? I love its penne. So far, best pasta I have tried. Am recently giving Barilla a try again, and Ronzoni. Weekend before last, I made your baked mac and cheese (no bacon though) and made a mistake of stirring it about 2/3 through cooking while it was still “wet”, which sorta scrambled the eggs. It was good tasting, but odd with that scramble texture. Will try it again and make sure I “set it and forget it” until done baking. I was a huge pasta freak before going GF. It is the one thing I seem to miss. Now, when i do eat it (rarely) it is usually a mere vehicle, not a main, and I hardly ever want a second helping.
Hi!! The recipe was perfect until you got to the sour cream, at least for me. I wonder if there is anything I can substitute for it that is not white and creamy, perhaps something completely different. I guess I am just not a cream sauce person. Ps. I sent someone with celiac to your site today. I just know she will love you!!!
I’m wondering how this would taste minus the wet ingredients in the “sauce/dressing” and instead use a sweet and tangy Catalina dressing. How does this sound to you? Back in the day, I would fancy a pita pocket with roast beef, fresh tomato, sliced fresh pineapple and Catalina dressing. Divine.
You’re really talking about a totally different dish, then, Alene. You might find something else more to your liking in my gluten free pasta dish recipe index. And thank you for the referral!
Alene
It all sounded perfect until the sour cream, at least for me. I wonder what else I might use, that is not white and creamy but in another direction. Ps. I sent someone to your site today who has celiac.I just knows she will love you!!!
I too love Barilla.. Glad to see it is a “serve immediately” as I have had issues with chilled GF pasta salads. Tend to crumble> Have you notice this? Any ideas.. or is it just the nature of the beast?
Hi, Sher, Barilla holds its texture much better than any other dried gluten free pasta I have ever tried, and it responds very well to reheating in the microwave. I find that, for “cold” pasta salads, I like to stick with room temperature, especially since as I discuss in the post, cooked pasta that has been rinsed and tossed with a bit of oil and covered can stay at room temperature for hours.
Boy, does that look great for a hot day like today.
🙌 Carole!
ty hugs!