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.
Took this to our family reunion yesterday. Huge hit. Beautiful presentation, healthy and adding the oasta made it creatively different. A real winner!
Ahh i’m so happy to hear this! It’s definitely one of our favorite healthy salads! Thanks Gail! 🙂
Can’t wait to make this salad. Looks delicious.
I hope you love it! 🙂
Forgot to say that I use a tablespoon of orange blossom honey instead of sugar in the dressing
I used your salad for I spiration for a salad, salad.
As with your’s I used baby spinach and cranberries.
Instead of pecans I used chopped cashew nuts.
I used fresh mandarin quarters, skipped the celery and apple but instead used julienned raw beetroot for the crunch ( red or yellow) I rinse and soak the julienned beet in water to get rid of the earthy taste First) I changed the feta to crumbled, mild blue cheese and left out the pasta.
The result is delicious and is a big success with all those who’ve tried it.
Thank you so much for the inspiration.
I made a few changes: instead of sugar I used 1tbsp of orange blossom honey in the dressing.
Sounds delicious! 🙂
Your recipe say to put 1/3 cup pecans in it, but to me the pitcher look like walnuts. So what do I Pit in it?
The pictures are pecans too 🙂 Add pecans! Enjoy!
My 15-year-old daughter trains in classical ballet, so she’s at her dance school upwards of 20 hours each week. This salad sent her leaping over the moon. It’s perfect. Fruits, vegetables, some carbs, healthy fat with the pecan, and beautifully balanced between salty, sour and sweet with just a touch of bitter from the spinach. Thank you for sharing! A ballerina’s dream dinner.
Awe!! I love hearing that! Thank you so much for the comment Julie 🙂
This salad looks so good. I’m trying it tomorrow! ?
I hope you love it! 🙂
Chelsea, I plan to serve this next month for a small lunch gathering and plan to add grilled chicken. My question is – besides a bread, what else should I serve with the salad? Since the salad has so many yummy ingredients, my mind has drawn a blank so thought I would get your suggestions. Thank you.
This was delicious just as written! Highly recommend!
Thanks Sherrie for your review and comment 🙂
The salad looks gorgeous, quick question though, can I replace the celery with something else? Cucumber? Sorry really can’t eat celery! Thanks!
You can just leave it out 🙂 Enjoy!