Cold Turkey Pasta Salad with Honey-Citrus Dressing

This sweet and savory main dish pasta salad is loaded with turkey, grapes, and toasted walnuts, and tossed in a deliciously refreshing honey-citrus dressing.

Cold Turkey Pasta Salad on a hot day makes a refreshing, satisfying meal. Loaded with savory turkey, nuts, and grapes and tossed in a tempting honey-citrus dressing, it’s perfect for packing in picnics, and a proven potluck crowd-pleaser!

This easy to make turkey pasta salad recipe offers lots of ingredient options, and can be prepared well in advance.

Jump to:

• Turkey Pasta Salad Ingredients
• How to Make this Main Dish Pasta Salad
• Substitutions
• Storage
• Top Tip: Make it Ahead
• More Savory Citrus Recipes
• What to Serve with Pasta Salad as a Main Dish
• Turkey Pasta Salad (Honey-Citrus Dressing)

Turkey Pasta Salad Ingredients

• Pasta: We like to make this salad with tri-colored rotini because it gives the salad a little extra color, but any spiral pasta will work (e.g., Fusilli, Rotini, Gemelli).
• Turkey: Use light or dark meat turkey. We prefer using breast meat. (This pasta salad is an excellent way to use up your leftover holiday turkey.)
• Walnuts: We think walnuts are the best nut for this combo, but you can use chopped almonds or filberts, whole pine nuts, or whatever you like.
• Grapes: Use any color grapes. (We like to mix things up.) Our biggest tip here is to be sure and taste your grapes before you throw them into your salad. 
• Mozzarella: Use aged mozzarella for this recipe. Fresh mozzarella may break down too quickly.
• Oranges: This is one time when you really want to use fresh oranges. You can use frozen or bottled OJ, but it lacks the sweet subtlety of freshly squeezed. Also, you must use fresh zest, so you might as well get a couple of fresh oranges and go for it. 
• Honey: Maple syrup will also work. It creates a slightly different, albeit pleasant, flavor profile for the dressing.
• Vegetable Oil: Use a neutral vegetable oil, like a Canola oil. DO NOT use olive oil unless you use a very light-tasting variety. 

Tip: Have you ever used red walnuts? If you can find them, they are prefect for this salad, especially if you are taking it to a potluck and want to bring a little extra something to the party.

How to Make this Main Dish Pasta Salad

Prep Ingredients

Pasta: Cook pasta according to package directions for one minute more than indicated for al dente. (i.e., if the box says that the rotini will be al dente after boiling 7 minutes, cook it for 8 minutes.) Do not overcook the pasta! 

Turkey: Cut turkey into ½-inch or ¼-inch cubes, depending upon your preference. 

Walnuts: Coarsely chop the walnuts by hand. This will give you some variety in chop-size, which is a good thing. 

Toast Walnuts: (optional) Heat a small, dry skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped nuts and stir or toss the nuts almost constantly until the color changes slightly and they begin to smell toasty. Remove from heat immediately. 

Mozzarella: Cut cheese into ½-inch or ¼-inch cubes, depending upon your preference. 

Celery: Cut celery into ¼-inch cubes. 

Mix the Salad

Once all the salad ingredients are prepped, combine them in a large bowl. 

Toss together the pasta salad ingredients - cooled pasta, turkey, grapes, toasted nuts, mozzarella, and chopped celery - and set aside. 

Make Honey-Citrus Dressing

To make the honey-citrus dressing, combine honey, orange zest, orange juice, kosher salt, and vegetable oil in a blender cup and blitz until thoroughly blended. 

Dress the Salad

Pour the dressing over the pasta salad ingredients in the bowl and toss to combine. 

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Substitutions

• Turkey: Chicken breast meat also works very well in this pasta salad. 
• Walnuts: Other nut options include chopped almonds, macadamia nuts, or filberts, or whole pine nuts.
• Mozzarella: Use any solid, white, semi-soft cow's milk cheese. Mexican Oaxaca cheese (pronounced wah-ha-kah) works extremely well. Like mozzarella, it has a mellow, buttery flavor, creamy texture, and slight saltiness. You can also use unaged Monterey Jack. 
• Honey: Maple syrup will also work. It creates a slightly different, albeit pleasant, flavor profile for the dressing.

Storage

Store cold turkey pasta salad in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. The salad will last 2-4 days.

Top Tip: Make it Ahead

Honey-Citrus Pasta Salad is best when it can marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours so that the flavors can mingle, meld, and marry. It's even better if it can sit overnight!

More Savory Citrus Recipes

What to Serve with Pasta Salad as a Main Dish

This pasta salad is relatively high in protein, and makes a great stand-alone main dish; however, our favorite time to make it is for a potluck. It goes with nearly everything, is hearty and satisfying, and is always a welcome change from mayonnaisy salads. Here are a few more of our favorite potluck recipes:

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Originally published June 15, 2015. Content, images, and directions have been updated to improve reader experience.