Mandarin Spinach Pasta Salad

This mandarin spinach pasta salad is topped with an amazing homemade teriyaki salad dressing, it’s quick, easy, healthy, and perfect to eat all summer long!

You guys know I love a good pasta salad, from our taco pasta salad, chicken caesar pasta salad to our caprese pasta salad, and now this yummy mandarin pasta salad. This pasta salad would be so good served with some homemade sourdough breadsticks. 

This mandarin spinach pasta salad is full of bowtie pasta noodles. fresh baby spinach, mandarin oranges, diced bell peppers, sliced almonds, and cilantro. All topped with an amazing homemade teriyaki salad dressing. 

The teriyaki dressing is similar to the recipe I put on my oriental chicken salad, and adapted from that recipe. It’s made with teriyaki sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, minced garlic, minced ginger, and a dash of salt and pepper. It’s addictive and so delicious, and the perfect dressing to tie this whole pasta salad together.

This mandarin spinach pasta salad is nice and versatile because you can customize it however you like, just don’t forget the dressing. 

Some other yummy toppings for this mandarin pasta salad:

• Pine nuts or cashews, instead of sliced almonds.
• Shredded carrots
• Sliced green onion 
• Diced Red Onion
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Shredded rotisserie chicken, diced grilled chicken, or other leftover chicken – to pack this pasta salad with protein and make it more filling to have it as your main dish
• Craisins

This mandarin pasta salad has a perfect blend of flavors, and textures – with a mix of tender pasta noodles, crunchy bell pepper and almonds, and soft spinach and orange slices. The oranges add a bit of sweetness to the salad, and I just love the lightly sweet dressing on top of it all. 

It’s so fresh, and perfect for eating all spring and summer long. It’s a great side dish option paired with some yummy grilled chicken or salmon, or add some chicken right into the pasta to make this salad a main dish in itself. 

How to make mandarin spinach pasta salad?

First you’ll prepare your teriyaki dressing so the flavors can all blend together. Mix together teriyaki sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, honey, rice wine vinegar, minced garlic, minced ginger, and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Cover and place in the fridge till it’s needed.

Then boil a pot of water, and cook your bow tie noodles according to the package directions. When they are cooked to al dente, you will drain the water and rinse the pasta with cold water. Set aside till they are needed.

While the noodles are cooking prepare your other ingredients, measure out your spinach, dice your bell pepper, drain the mandarin oranges, dice the cilantro.

Add the dry ingredients, pasta, spinach, bell pepper, mandarin oranges, almonds, and cilantro to a bowl. Cover with desired amount of teriyaki dressing (start with about half of it, and add more as needed) and toss to coat everything. Serve it up and enjoy!

This mandarin pasta salad is best enjoyed immediately, so if you want to make it ahead of time, you can toss together the dry ingredients, and just save adding the dressing until you are ready to enjoy it! Without the dressing the pasta salad can be made 1 to 2 days in advanced.

Looking for more potluck salad recipes?

• Macaroni Salad
• Pesto Pasta Salad
• Ramen Noodle Salad
• Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad
• Slow Cooker Baked Beans

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