Weekday Pasta Salad
A pasta salad is such a useful family meal for the Summer months; leftovers work brilliantly for lunches, picnics and early suppers.
This pasta salad is packed full of Summery ingredients: tomatoes, grilled artichokes, peppers, pitted olives and basil. However, you can use up what you have in your fridge and add any ingredients you love to eat as a family.
I often add diced grilled chicken, as extra protein and if you prefer to keep the vegetarian another great you can add cannellini beans.
I refrigerate the salad in an airtight container, with the dressing stored separately as I find it keeps better.
Recipe serves 4
ingredients for the salad
200g pasta*
*penne, fusilli or farfalle work well
125g cherry vine tomatoes
1 large red pepper
50g chargrilled artichoke hearts
150g feta*, OR 200g mozzarella, cheese
50g pitted black olives, drained
¼ red onion
1/2 cucumber
2 celery stalks
25g fresh basil leaves
ingredients for the dressing
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
the salad
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions and drain, rinse in cold running water and set aside.
Prepare the ingredients for the salad
halve the cherry tomatoes
core and dice the red pepper
drain and chop the cooked artichokes
cut the feta/ or mozzarella cheese into cubes
cut the pitted olives in half
peel and finely dice red onion
wash and dice cucumber
trim, peel and dice the celery
pick the fresh leaves from the stems, finely slice into shredded basil pieces
Take a large bowl for the salad and add the cooked pasta, all the other ingredients and scatter with the fresh basil leaves.
the dressing
Add the dressing ingredients to a small mixing bowl and with a hand blander, blend until smooth. This will emulsify the oil into a thick creamy dressing. Store in an airtight container until you are ready to dress the salad and serve.
serving suggestion
Add cooked, cooled and sliced homemade chicken 200g as extra protein. Or you can add drained tin of cannellini beans.