Sort of healthy pasta salad

[Just Kate]

Anyone have a recipe?

[kalanamak]

I take WW spirals or elbows, add a generous amount of diced cukes, tomatoes, bell peppers, some diced onion, a sprinkle of Penzey's Greek Seasoning, EVOO and lemon juice. Parsley is good, too. A crumble of feta is divine.

 

In mine, the veggie part is about half of the bulk.

[Slartibartfast]

Mine also has a lot of veggies. I add tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, peppers, black olives, scallions...I generally use some sort of multi-colored pasta and zesty Italian dressing (not creamy)

 

I let the kids put cheese on it but I don't serve it with cheese

[Soror]

I made an awesome one the other day for company but I didn't measure. I put in too taste; evoo, rice vinegar(I would have used apple cider but they were intolerant), sea salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder (just garlic and onion), basil and oregano. I used gf penne noodles and lots of very thinly sliced/peeled carrots, dehydrated green peppers and chopped red peppers. It was so yummy and creamy. I added some sprinkled some real Parmesan at the table as well- I wanted to add slice black olives but my friend doesn't like them. Other veggies would have been awesome as well but I had limited on hand and we had sauteed a whole bunch. I would have loved it w/ some type of banana or mild hot peppers.

[Laurie4b]

Anyone have a recipe?

 

To greatly increase the healthiness quotient without affecting flavor or texture, use Barilla Plus pasta. Of the pasta shapes that people make pasta salad from, it comes in rotini, bowtie, elbows, and penne. It is made with both semolina and with a flour made from legumes, so has a lot more fiber and protein. It tastes like white pasta. Even my picky kid converted straight to it from white.

 

For the dressing, use olive oil and vinegar based dressing instead of a mayonaise based dressing or an omega 6 type dressing.

 

Add real garlic instead of a powder. It's super good for you.

 

Those two changes plus lots of veges will make for a healthy dish.

[Chris in VA]

Similar to others here--we do use the Barilla pasta plus most of the time. It's got a good texture. I use a smallish bag, or a box--I can't remember if it's a whole pound.

I add 2 cukes, a pint of grape tomatoes cut in half, 2 green peppers, about 5 or 6 mushrooms (white, cut--I don't like them cause they get slimy later, but dh eats them), a small can of sliced black olives, and about 6 oz of mozzarella cut into small chunks. You can use low fat cheese.

 

I douse it with regular Italian dressing, but a good mix of garlic, onion, EVOO and vinegar would be fine.

 

We eat it as a main course, not as a side. This amt serves all 5 of us, or the 3 of us home now, with plenty left for lunch and a snack (usually someone eats a bowl before bed on the day I make it). I can make it in 15 minutes, so it's a go-to summer meal around here.

[Soror]

I use Trader Joe's brown rice pasta here as we are gf. I would have loved to have added some nitrate free pepperoni but I have a rationed qty for pizza night :) I think homemade mayo is healthy as well, I use olive oil to make mine but I don't think fats are unhealthy, just processed/veggie ones (except for olive).

[Wildcat]

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Edited January 6, 2023 by Wildcat