My mom used to make a yummy pasta salad that had spaghetti noodles and zesty Italian dressing and it was packed with veggies. We loved it! When I saw in a Trader Joe’s recipe book they had added the toasted sesame dressing over pasta, it reminded me of the one my mom used to make and a similar one we make now with sweet potato noodles, I combined the two and made the best easy dinner! Sharing my fun twist on a traditional pasta salad that is packed with flavor and yummy ingredients!

Everything here you need to make this quick dinner, you can add really anything to this pasta dish and use any pasta you want! Easy to adapt.

I love these sweet potatoes glass noodles, gluten-free and made with just sweet potato starch. I like that it isn’t a heavy pasta noodle. But you can really use any noodle/pasta you have on hand or that you prefer. From spaghetti noodles to rotini, you can’t go wrong. First you’ll cook your pasta and then mix in the dressing.

My kids love edamame, and they love peas, since I don’t love pea’s we do edamame!

Then add the add color, flavor, and crunch to the pasta salad with your mix-ins. I like to sauté the tomatoes until they are soft and hot, then add edamame to warm. My kids love the edamame, the tomatoes not as much. They can easily be picked out.

Or you can serve all the toppings on the side and let everyone add what they want to their pasta.

This is a nice dish because you can serve as side, or make it the main meal. You can serve hot or cold. It’s quick, too — you are looking at under 20 minutes!

We love this Trader Joe’s Organic Toasted Sesame dressing, but you can really use any dressing you like!

Toasted Sesame Pasta Salad

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Ingredients

1 cup Toasted Sesame dressing
1 lb sweet potato noodles
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup shelled edamame
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 cup cashews or peanuts
1 cup cucumber

Instructions

Cook noodles per package instructions.
Saute tomatoes and edamame until warm and soft.
Mix noodles and dressing together, add all other ingredients to pasta. Add more dressing to taste.
Enjoy!

This pasta salad is fantastic as-is but, like most salad recipes, this one is super flexible. So be sure to taste and adjust it to your liking before serving!