Copycat Ruby Tuesday Pasta Salad Recipe
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Ruby Tuesday’s Pasta Salad is famous and so delicious and simple! This copycat recipe is the perfect side dish with all the essentials with rotini pasta, diced ham, peas and lots of ranch dressing!
What You Will Love About Ruby Tuesday Pasta Salad
This delicious dish tastes and looks just like the creamy pasta salad on the Ruby Tuesday salad bar! The first time I ever went to Ruby Tuesday, my friend took me to the salad bar and said, “YOU HAVE TO GET THE PASTA SALAD!” I was hooked and this recipe has been so great since all the RT’s have closed near me!
Ruby Tuesday Pasta Salad Ingredients
This great dish is a great meal on its own and has a very simple list of ingredients and includes traditional salad toppings! Here’s what you’ll need to make this copycat version of Ruby Tuesday pasta salad:
- Rotini pasta – you can use any shaped pasta with nooks and crannies that will hold the ranch sauce
- Mayonnaise – my fav is Duke’s Mayo
- Buttermilk – adds a ton of flavor but you swap with a blend of sour cream & milk
- Dry ranch dressing mix – Hidden Valley Ranch or any of the generics will work
- Diced ham – I used some leftover ham steak – but whatever
- Frozen green peas – you could also use fresh peas but definitely not canned!
- Kosher Salt & black pepper – just a bit for flavor
How to Make Ruby Tuesday’s Pasta Salad
This is such an easy ranch pasta salad recipe to make – I put together this unique pasta salad in about 5 minutes after the pasta was done!
- Boil a large pot of water and cook rotini according to package directions on the al dente side of done.
- While pasta is cooking, in a smaller bowl bowl with a whisk, combine mayonnaise, buttermilk & ranch dressing mix. Refrigerate until ready to mix.
- Drain pasta with a colander and rinse with cold water. You want to stop the cooking and cool the noodles completely. Set pasta in the fridge for 20 minutes if you’d like to make sure it’s cool.
- Once noodles are cooled, in a large bowl combine salad ingredients (dressing, pasta, peas, salt & pepper) with dressing mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge until ready to serve, at least for 2 hours.
Tips, Tricks & FAQs
Not too many tricks to this tasty recipe – but here’s a few of the most common questions:
Any ham you’ve got is already cooked – so whatever you have is fine. I used leftover ham steak.
You can use frozen or fresh peas – they need to have that pop! I used frozen and by the time it was all mixed – they were thawed. So put them in right from the freezer.
Heck no! That’s what they use – but bowtie or macaroni or any shaped pasta (to capture that ranch dressing) will work. I even used Banzaa pasta made from chick peas – and that was REALLY good!
Yes – you can swap out the mayo/buttermilk/dressing mix for one cup ranch dressing. It will taste a little different but is a good quick semi-homemade swap.
Yes – the ranch seasoning needs time to meld together with the mayo and buttermilk.
Store in airtight containers – I love the glass dishes with the locking lids.
Variations
This awesome copycat Ruby Tuesday pasta salad recipe can be more than a pea pasta salad – you can make some tweaks to what you like:
- Vegetables – add more veggies – like green pepper, broccoli, carrots, olives or corn
- Pasta – swap the rotini for bowtie, penne, cavatappi, fusilli or macaroni
- Cheese – add diced colby jack or sharp cheddar cheese
- Protein – swap the ham or shredded chicken, hard boiled egg or diced bacon
More Side Dish & Salad Recipes
More Favorite Restaurant Recipes
I love local family-run diners but some of my favorite dishes come from a chain restaurant! Here are some of my favorites:
Copycat Ruby Tuesday Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz rotini pasta
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 packet ranch seasoning mix
- 1 cup diced ham
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of water and cook rotini according to package directions.8 oz rotini pasta
- While pasta is cooking, in a large bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, buttermilk & ranch dressing mix. Refrigerate until ready to mix.1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1 packet ranch seasoning mix
- Drain pasta and rinse with cold water. You want to stop the cooking and cool the noodles completely.
- Once noodles are cooled, pour in large bowl with dressing mixture.
- Fold in ham, peas, salt & pepper.1 cup diced ham, 1 cup frozen peas, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper
- Refrigerate until ready, at least for 2 hours.
