Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad: A simple pasta and spinach salad with tart apples, crisp celery, toasted pecans, sweet dried cranberries, and juicy oranges. This salad is dressed with a simple poppyseed vinaigrette.
Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad
We’re all obsessed with a good pasta salad at my home. And with Fall on the mind, I thought it would be great to combine a pasta salad with seasonal fruits and veggies like apples, cranberries, and pecans. Fall salad essentials!
This salad has it all — flavor, sweetness, and texture and we can’t get enough of it! Today I’m sharing plenty of tips to making the best pasta salad along with some variation ideas. Let’s get started!
Quick Tips
- Look for short pasta: Choose pasta that has plenty of nooks and crannies to catch as much of the dressing as possible. I use orecchiette pasta, but some other pastas that would work well is miniature farfelle, rotini, or small pasta shells.
- Salt the pasta water: Since this Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad is eaten cold, the flavors tend to get muted. Make sure the pasta is well-salted as it cooks, since salting is the only chance you have to season the actual pasta. Don’t be afraid to add more salt to the finished salad if it needs it. Read about how to properly salt your pasta water here.
- Cook the pasta to al dente: Since the pasta sits in dressing, it has a tendency to get soggy if overcooked. Pasta also gets a little firmer when served cold, so don’t under cook it! I cook it right to the package directions of what al dente is.
- The dressing can easily be adjusted to personal preference. Give it a quick taste test and slightly adapt if needed — you may want to add a bit more sugar if you like dressings on the sweeter side. On the flip side, if you’re worried about dressing sweetness, you may want to reduce the sugar.
Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad Variation Ideas
- Add a creamy element, such as a ripe avocado. Since avocados don’t hold up well in the salad, if you add them, add to individual plates right before serving.
- Add chicken. Either leftover cooked chicken, a rotisserie chicken, or some diced grilled chicken (use this delicious chicken marinade).
- For an additional creamy element (beyond the cheese), add a diced or thinly sliced avocado
- Swap out dried tart cherries for the dried cranberries
- Use goat cheese instead of feta cheese
- Swap out candied pecans for the toasted pecans
How To Toast Pecans
Pour the (un-chopped) pecans into an even layer in a small, dry (no need to add oil or anything) skillet over medium-heat and stir them around a bit until they are fragrant and toasted to your liking.
Watch the pecans carefully; they can go from perfectly cooked to burnt in an instant! I like to remove them as soon as they begin to smell fragrant.
Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad Storage
- Unfortunately this Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad doesn’t sit or store well once dressed. The dressing will wilt the spinach, the apples begin to brown, and the pecans get soggy once dressed.
- The salad can be made in advance as long as everything is stored separately and the apple is cut right before enjoying. Assemble and add the dressing right before eating.
- If you do make the dressing in advance, don’t be alarmed if it clumps and separates in the fridge (the clumps are the fats (oil) separating and solidifying). To fix this simply shake the dressing together again until smooth (If it’s still clumpy, let it stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes and then shake again).
More Delicious Seasonal Salads
- Roasted Veggie Salad with a lemon dressing
- Roasted Beet, Avocado, & Citrus Salad with a citrus vinaigrette
- Butternut Squash Salad with a creamy maple dressing
- Mandarin Orange Salad with a citrus vinaigrette
- Spinach Salad with an apple cider dressing
Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad
Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad brings together tart apples, crisp celery, toasted pecans, sweet cranberries, and juicy oranges with pasta and spinach. A light poppyseed vinaigrette ties it together for a fresh, fall-inspired dish!
Equipment
- Mason jar or other sealable container
- Large bowl
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups dry small pasta
- 5 ounces fresh spinach half a 10-ounce bag, 6 cups
- 3/4 cup chopped celery
- 1 large Granny Smith Apple
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 (15-ounce) can drained mandarin oranges or 2 mandarin oranges
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup pecans coarsely chopped, see note 1
- Feta cheese optional
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 2 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions to al dente. Boil pasta in salted water (1 teaspoon salt per 4 cups water)—this is what seasons the pasta!
- While pasta cooks, add all ingredients under “Dressing” to a mason jar and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Seal and shake vigorously to combine.
- Once cooked, drain pasta and immediately toss with a few tablespoons of dressing, then chill dressed pasta in fridge.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice celery, thinly slice or chop apple and toss with lemon juice, and peel oranges or drain from the can.
- In a very large bowl, toss the completely cooled pasta with the spinach. Add in celery, apple, oranges, dried cranberries, and coarsely chopped pecans. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Add feta cheese to personal preference and enjoy immediately.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 1: If desired, toast the pecans. Let completely cool and then coarsely chop before adding into the salad.
- To toast pecans: If you want to toast the pecans, place them in a single layer in a dry saucepan (don’t add anything) over medium heat. Stir constantly until the nuts are barely fragrant—just a couple of minutes. Watch carefully as the nuts are very easily scorched/burned.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 234kcal | Carbohydrates: 33.7g | Protein: 3.5g | Fat: 10.8g | Sodium: 24mg | Fiber: 3.3g | Sugar: 17.2g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this tonight. It was amazing. The whole bowl was gobbled up! Totally a make again!
So thrilled to hear that!! Thanks so much for the comment Jen 🙂
I made this salad and we loved it. I used 3 Tbsp. of sugar and followed the recipe. I did add chicken. Perfect week nigh dinner.
So glad to hear that! Thanks so much for the comment Deborah 🙂
I have been unable to find the recipe for candied pecans.
https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/triple-berry-spinach-salad-candied-pecans/
made this for my lunch today, and it was awesome! I scaled down the salad ingredients, but made the full portion of dressing, so now I have extra left for future salads. made it just like it is (didn’t add the optional feta), and I wouldn’t change a thing. perfection. 🙂
Yay!!! So great to hear! Glad you enjoyed this Tara! 🙂
great except for recommending to use vegetable oils that are detrimental to health. Just use olive oil and it’s good to go!
Yes, olive oil will work in this recipe, but personally I do like vegetable oil better 🙂
what other kind of pasta can you use , never heard of this kind of pasta .
Hey Marlene! You can really use any small shaped pasta 🙂 The more ridges, the better it absorbs the pasta. We’ve tried it with a few different kinds and it’s great!
This salad was absolutely AMAZING. My 15-year-old daughter (who is super picky) even took some in her lunch the next day. Added to the list for Thanksgiving…thank you so much!!!!
Oh yeah!!! SO great to hear! 🙂 Thanks for the comment and trying this recipe! I’m glad it makes it on the list for Thanksgiving 🙂
Has a very interesting look to it 🙂 —– very inviting & creative ….I really WANT to make it. Query…. What kind of pasta is that, never seen it before & want to buy it. TY! 🙂
Thank you so much Susie! That particular pasta is called orecchiette pasta 🙂
Thanks for the delicious salad recipe. Love the pasta in it. Definitely worth the extra 5 minutes to make the dressing. It’s a nice complement to the fruits as are the feta and toasted pecans. It’s a large salad so I served the dressing on the side so it will be good for another meal. Also, congratulations on your new baby!
Thank you so much, so sweet of you! 🙂 And SO glad you loved the salad, thanks for your comment and review 🙂
I made this salad today…DELICIOUS!!! If you think you don’t like feta (my Mom automatically said she didn’t like feta and wasn’t going to eat it) try it! The tartness of the feta was balanced by all the sweetness going on in the salad. Mom later tried it and loved it!!! We made it exactly according to the recipe and after the first helping (Yes! There were multiple helpings!!!) we added a little purple onion and some bacon. OMGOODNESS!!! So good! Thank you for this recipe!!! We’re adding this to our Thanksgiving lineup this year!
Yay!! Love this comment! 🙂 And I totally agree. We tried this again the other night and I could eat feta now (not pregnant anymore!!) and it was crazy good!! I love the idea of adding onion and bacon oh man that sounds good! 🙂