Most pasta salad recipes I see online don’t appeal to me. I’m a very picky eater, but my horizons are very expanded compared to the limited amount of things I used to eat. I bring my lunch to work every day, so I decided to make pasta salad today to bring for the next few days. This is just what I personally enjoy in my pasta salad, I wanted to post it to give people ideas or even to make this exact version. Hope you enjoy!
Abby’s Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of House vinaigrette dressing
- 1 box of Barilla Tri-color Rotini Pasta
- 1 cup of chopped steamed green beans
- 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup of chopped raw cauliflower
- 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 thick slice of chicken from the deli, cubed
- 1 thick slice of cheese from the deli, cubed
Directions:
- Prep vegetables:
- Steam green beans and chop them, refrigerate
- Rinse cauliflower and chop, refrigerate
- Peel carrot and chop, refrigerate
- Cook pasta:
- Boil water
- Add a tablespoon of salt and stir to dissolve
- Put in pasta and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Drain pasta
- Let cool
- Pour a little olive oil on pasta and stir so that the pasta doesn’t stick together
- Assemble pasta salad:
- For this step, everything should be cold. Do not assemble with any ingredients that are hot or warm!
- Put pasta in a large bowl
- On the side, cube the chicken and cheese
- Put in all ingredients in one at a time, stirring each ingredient into the pasta before adding the next
- Finish assembling and pour a 1/2 cup of house dressing onto the pasta salad and stir it in, making sure everything is covered
- Refrigerate overnight for best results, or enjoy right away!
Tip: Don’t put too much dressing when you first make it. If anything, but less dressing than you prefer and then add more dressing to your individual serving before eating to avoid making the whole batch soggy. The less dressing on it, the longer it will stay.
A balanced lunch that I would bring: A container of pasta salad, a hard boiled egg, a yogurt, a container of fresh fruit, and some almonds.
Hope you enjoy!
Stay positive.
~Abby
Awaken Your Soul 