Name: Creamy Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta Salad
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 4 oz Whole Grain or Gluten-free Pasta (112g, about 1 cup dry); 2 cups Broccoli Florets (Chopped, 180g); ½ cup Carrots (Chopped small, 64g); ¼ cup Frozen Green Peas (Thawed, 36g); ¼ cup Chopped Onion (40g); 1 cup Chicken Breast (Cooked and Diced, 140g); ¼ cup Tbsp Non-fat Greek Yogurt (about 56g); 2 tsp Lemon Juice; 1½ tsp Water; 1½ tsp Cajun Seasoning; Stevia Sweetener (2 tsp sugar worth (Use your brand's Conversion Chart))

Creamy Cajun Chicken & Broccoli Pasta Salad with carrots, peas, and a sweet and spicy cajun-seasoned sauce. This delicious protein-packed pasta salad is ready in under 15 minutes and tastes great hot or cold!

Jump to Recipe

Thankfully my I-want-all-the-pasta phase is back and summer isn’t over yet. This means I still have some time to experiment with some pasta salad recipes before it all goes “out of fashion”.

Well as for this recipe, everyone’s heard of the regular hot cajun chicken pasta – all those one-pot meals and such – so this is kind of a cold pasta salad variation of that.

Okay to tell you the truth I was kinda going for the hot dish, but it didn’t really taste as good as I was hoping when I tasted it. So instead I just made a creamy yogurt-based sauce with spicy cajun seasoning, added some broccoli and turned the recipe into cajun chicken pasta salad!

Totally worked out! I liked it so much I actually ended up making it for like 3 days in a row!

Creamy Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta Salad Ingredients

This chicken broccoli pasta salad needs just a few basic vegetables you probably already have lying around in your kitchen.

Pasta! I’d recommend a whole grain or gluten-free one like one of those popular legume-based pastas. Really keeps this pasta salad healthy.
Broccoli – Use freshly chopped broccoli
Carrots for a bit of sweet cruchiness
Frozen Green Peas, but don’t forget to thaw them first
Onion – I used white onion but red would be just as good

How to make Cajun Pasta Salad Dressing

This cajun seasoning pasta salad dressing is made with green yogurt – no mayo or oil – and is a low fat alternative.

All you need to do to make it is stir together the ingredients in a bowl:

Non-fat Greek Yogurt – use coconut yogurt if you want a dairy free and vegan pasta salad sauce
Lemon juice for that zing
Water – I use the one from cooking the pasta, but plain water would be just as good.
Cajun seasoning – either a store bought or homemade works. Try my recipe if you want to make your own.
Stevia sweetener to make a sweet cajun sauce, since the seasoning itself is quite spicy on its own. This really tones down the heat. Feel free to replace it with regular sugar, honey or maple syrup for a Vegan version.

Put together the Creamy Cold Chicken Broccoli Pasta Salad

The reason I love a good healthy pasta salad is because they’re so easy to put together.

Cook the pasta, drain it out and let it cool
Steam the broccoli and carrots in the microwave – while the pasta cooks
Chop the onions and let the peas thaw
Stir together the ingredients for the sauce
Toss the vegetables, pasta and cajun seasoning salad dressing in a large bowl

The perfect sweet and spicy creamy chicken broccoli pasta salad recipe ready in about 10 minutes!

How to steam Broccoli in the Microwave

No steamer basket or fancy e equipment needed to steam the broccoli here.

All you need is a big microwave-safe bowl, a paper towel, and water.

Chop the broccoli into florets
Place it in the bowl
Dampen the paper towel with the water
Microwave on high for about 2 minutes – longer if you have more broccoli

Customize this Greek Yogurt Broccoli Pasta Salad:

Play around with the vegetables in this pasta salad – try some red or green green bell peppers, zucchini, celery, artichoke – a lot of options here.
Switch out the plain chicken breast with another protein source – grilled chicken thighs, sausage, or even some salmon would go really well as a cold cajun pasta salad.
Make this a creamy Vegan or Vegetarian cajun pasta salad with tofu for the protein, and coconut yogurt for the sauce.
You can also turn this into some sort of an Italian sauce pasta salad instead – just replace the cajun seasoning with Italian seasoning and may be add some more herbs and pepper for a bit of flavor.

How to Store this Chicken & Vegetable Pasta Salad and Dressing:

I like my pasta salads cooked fresh, but they do make really good meal prep recipes, and leftovers keep well too!

Store any extras of this broccoli pasta salad in the fridge for up to 2 days after its mixed with the creamy cajun sauce.

To meal prep for a week, you can combine all the vegetables and pasta, and store this mix in separate containers. When it’s time to east – or the morning on the day of – whip up the creamy cajun sauce, and combine it with the chicken, veggies and pasta.

Some more Creamy Cold Pasta Salad recipes you might like: