Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad

Submitted by MC Baker

"This is a summer salad I make every year. It's light and healthy, and is always gone within a day between myself and my husband."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 3 -4 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 head broccoli, chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1⁄2 cup walnuts, halves and pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup mushroom, sliced
• 1⁄4 cup onion
• 2 cups rotini pasta, dried
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 1⁄4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
• 1⁄2 cup mayonnaise (optional)
• 1⁄2 cup parsley, chopped (optional)
• 1 avocado, diced (optional)

directions

1. Boil dried pasta under a rapid boil for approximately 10 minutes, or until pasta is just tender (al dente).
2. Chop up your vegetables and mix with olive oil, vinegar, and seasonings.
3. Other vegetables can be used in addition to or instead of the ones listed, though those are my favorites. Some other ideas include yellow or red bell pepper, zucchini, cucumber, fennel etc.
4. Once pasta is done drain and rinse with cool water.
5. Mix pasta with vegetables and mayonnaise if using. The pasta is great with or without.
6. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
7. Add parsley and avocado on top if you like.
8. The longer this sits in the refrigerator the better it is, but it's great fresh as well.
9. It's great to make extra of this and leave out mayo and avocado. If I feel like eating my pasta with mayo or avocado, I just add it to my serving. This way the pasta will keep in the refrigerator for a few days no problem. It makes great left overs to bring to work for lunch.

Reviews

[Stardumpling]

I only used the dressing for this as I usually do pasta salad the cheap and slacker way. I use whatever pasta I have in the cupboard and a bag of frozen mixed veggies. I used a bag of southwestern frozen veggies with lots of beans in it to give a little extra protein and substance. It makes for a great meal. The dressing was perfect and the cajun seasoning in it really matched the veggies well. I also added a 1/2 tsp of onion powder to it.

 

[redping]

Delicious and pretty easy to make too. I would consider it more of a side than a main dish, but it is a very tasty and quick side dish to make ahead. The thing I liked best about this recipe as opposed to other pasta salads is that it tasted so light and refreshing. No overpowering. Also I used roasted broccoli because I had some left over and it was delicious. I think this would be a great use of left over roasted veggies.