The Suddenly Salad bacon ranch pasta salad is a great side dish to bring to a picnic or to serve as a side dish.
Table of Contents
Make Suddenly Salad Ranch & Bacon Salad at Home
If you aren’t familiar with the Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad packages, you are missing out on an easy way to make pasta salads. The Suddenly salad pasta salads are easy to fix and tasty. Suddenly Salad boxes come with flavoring packages.
This copycat suddenly salad recipe for Ranch & Bacon comes with a festive mix of vegetable blend and seasoning and imitation bacon bits. However, you can make this pasta salad at home without using the prepackaged mix.
Pasta salads are ideal for picnics or a potluck. I get requests for this pasta salad for every get-together and cookout.
Pasta Salads Aren’t Dainty
It might be true that real men don’t eat quiche or salads, especially if salads conjure up images of dainty lunches for ladies. However, pasta salads are robust combinations of pasta, vegetables, and often cheese and meat, bound together by a distinctively flavored dressing. Pasta salads are decidedly macho and the men in your life will love them.
Pasta Salad is not Italian
Pasta, of course, is associated with Italy where they take their pasta very seriously. But pasta salad is actually more American than Italian. Italians generally prefer their pasta hot and served as a separate course. Pasta salad is relatively new in the US as far as culinary trends go. It only really became popular starting in the 1980s when there was a mayonnaise-based macaroni salad that could be found in every deli and became tiresome.
DIY Suddenly Salad
You can make this Suddenly Salad Ranch & Bacon Salad in your kitchen. Pasta, mayonnaise and a few extra ingredients create a very flavorful pasta salad. And, the crispy bacon adds a nice flavor. This is a great knock-off recipe – in fact, it’s even better than the box!
Ingredients
This is what you need to make the salad:
- Pasta
- Green Peas
- Carrots
- Mayonnaise
- Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
- Onion Powder
- Bacon Bits
How to Make Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
- Boil pasta and carrot shreds for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Mix together the peas, ranch dressing mix, bacon bits, onion powder, and mayonnaise.
- Add the cooked pasta and carrots. Stir to coat the pasta with the mayonnaise mixture.
- Refrigerate the pasta salad until serving.
Three Rules for Making a Pasta Salad
- Don’t overcook the pasta.
- Rinse the cooked pasta in cold water. Normally you wouldn’t do this with pasta, but it’s necessary when preparing a pasta salad to keep the pasta from cooking further. Cool the pasta completely before making the salad.
- Choose your brand of pasta carefully. Although pasta is cheap, spend a few extra pennies on a name brand that you trust.
Variations on this Pasta Salad
Thanks to my readers who sent in some good ideas like this one:
If you think that using mayo makes the dish too heavy, swap the mayo out for sour cream and a few splashes of milk. This makes the salad creamier and lighter.
More Pasta Salad Recipes to Try
- Country Pasta Salad
- Broccoli Cheddar Pasta Salad
- Steakhouse Pasta Salad
- Shrimp and Pasta Salad Recipe
- Simple Macaroni Salad
- Lubys Spaghetti Salad
Recipes For Pasta Lovers
- Pasta and Egg
- Olive Garden Baked Pasta
- White Wine Garlic Shrimp Pasta Recipe
- Chicken Scampi Pasta
- Chicken Gorgonzola Pasta
- Pizza Hut Baked Pasta
- Pizza Pasta Bowl
Be sure to check out all the tasty copycat salad and great pasta recipes.
Suddenly Salad Ranch Bacon Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry shell pasta
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 8 ounces green peas
- 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch ranch dressing mix
- 2 tablespoons bacon bits
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
Instructions
- Bring water to a rolling boil in a large saucepan. Add pasta and carrot shreds and boil for 10 minutes. Drain using a strainer and rinse the pasta and carrots with cold water. Shake the strainer to remove excess water from the pasta.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the peas, the entire packet of ranch dressing mix, bacon bits, onion powder, and mayonnaise.
- Add the cooked pasta and carrots. Stir until the pasta is coated with the mayonnaise mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate until serving.
Lisa
I used ranch dip mix and sour cream, frozen peas, green onions and olives. It was absolutely wonderful and didn’t last long
Kat Robert Hanson
I have been using the box and I am going to start making from scratch.
But, what I do is add kirkland’s canned chicken from Costco and boil 2-4 eggs and add that as well. I like mine thick as far as the Mayo goes so I think it’s best to set over night but it’s so good it’s hard to wait til the next day. Just so good completely chilled.
Sharyn
The best pasta salad dressing I ever had was from a Good Seasoning Packet. It was made especially for pasta salads. Strong flavor to stand up with all the different things put into a pasta salad. I have looked for this pasta salad packet for years and haven’t been able to find one. I was hoping that you could make a clone/copykat recipe. Believe me its the best dressing for pasta salad I have ever had, and I have been making pasta salad since the 1970s
Stephanie Manley
I never had this before, I don’t doubt it was delicious. Penzey’s spices makes a similar product, I wonder if adding more of the base would be helpful. Their Italian dressing dry is is amazing
Sandra L. Wendorf
Hello:
Many commentators are suggesting to use ranch dressing instead of the packet that comes in the box.I don’t know if any of you ever tried to make the ranch dressing from scratch. Many recipes for this on the internet. These don’t have all those preservatives in them , are super easy to make. Give one of those recipes a try; they’re great to use.
Sandra
Karen Blasingame
I doubled the recipe and used the mayo and sour cream combo. I also added in a cup of finely diced red, green and yellow pepper medley. I didn’t cook the carrots and I used leftover bacon from breakfast. Medium shells are hard to find so I used the small shells. This was fantastic.
Jeaneene Weishaar
I made it with 2/3 cup mayo and 1/3 cup sour cream (but I also used more pasta than called for). Perfection!
Sarah
Yum! This came out so good! Just like the stuff in the box, if not better! I added couple spoonfuls of plain yogurt that I needed to use up, but otherwise followed the instructions. Thanks for a delicious, easy recipe!
Stacy
Fantastic recipe! Thank you Stephanie for making this amazing dish so easy! I thought I’d add that if you want this as a heartier “meal”, I suggest adding some diced ham, turkey or chicken. My crew loves the ham the most😁 Thanks again and God Bless!
Reena Bansal
Absolutely the best tasting pasta salad I have ever tasted. So yummy! I could eat the whole bowl myself. Thanks grandma so tasty, only way i will be doing it from now on.
Jean
Excellent, used the frozen peas and added a bit of sour cream. Never will buy a box again.
Rebecca Currie
Going to try this… I was going to just use ranch dressing instead of the packet and mayo………………… I probably will still.
AMBER
This recipe is sooo good! I won’t buy the box again. How long does it stay good for?
Stephanie
This has never lasted for more than 4 or 5 days at my house.
Thomas corbey
I wonder how this would be as a potato salad variation instead of pasta?
Stephanie
I think it would be great!
Tabitha
I used mayo the last time and thought it was too heavy. So this time I used sour cream and a few splashes of milk and it was creamier and lighter then using the mayo. So much better.Very yummy.
evixir
Thanks so much for this. A few years ago they started packaging this product with the tiny shell pasta instead of the medium shell pasta (cheaper for them, same price for us) so I have boycotted them, but loved the flavor and will give this a try.
Willis Blackhorn
try using ranch instead of mayo
Ladyofanairman
WOW! This is a great knock off recipe–in fact, it is better than the box! I found the young peas in a can to be a little to soft, though. Next time, I will try the frozen peas for more cripsness. But it is GREAT!
Ashley
i only used mayo and the sauce
cowboysheriff
Which sauce, Ashley?
Anonymous
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My family loves this salad, and they were out of it at Shop Rite todaY!
Happy barbequeing!