Description
A lemony healthy pasta salad with delicious ingredients such as roasted tomato and zucchini. This greek-style pasta salad recipe has the absolute BEST pasta salad dressing!
Ingredients
Scale
Healthy Pasta Salad
- 5 1/2 oz whole wheat fusilli, 160 g. Or your favorite pasta
- 1/2 zucchini, half inch half moon slices
- 1 spring onion, thinly sliced, optional
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, either whole or cut in half
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 3 cloves garlic, grated. reserve 1/4 tsp to vinaigrette
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup edamame peas, skinned. optional. 4 tbsp
- 3 cups salad, e.g. mixed romaine, arugula, spinach, lettuce
- 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled. 70g
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- fresh basil, to garnish, optional
Basil Lemon Vinaigrette
- 1/2 lemon, 1 tbsp juice and 1 tsp zest
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp fresh garlic, as reserved from above
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp honey, or maple syrup for vegan
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard, or other mustard for vegan
- 1 tsp fresh basil
Instructions
- Slice the zucchini into half inch slices and then to half moons. I love to julienne the carrot just for added interest and texture, but you may cut it to any shape. Sometimes I also add sliced onion.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Add zucchini, tomatoes, carrot, white parts of the spring onion to a roasting pan, along with garlic, olive oil and a little salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a pre-heated oven of 400F (200C) for 20 minutes. If you want you can add the carrots later (15-16 minutes into the bake time) to keep its bite, but it’s not necessary.
- Chop your favorite greens, add to a big bowl along with skinned edamame peas, fresh basil, crumbled feta cheese and dry roasted pine nuts. To dry roast pine nuts you add pine nuts to a dry non-stick pan on medium high heat and cook until fragrant. Swirl the pan.
- To make the pasta salad dressing you add all the ingredients to a glass or jar with a lid. Shake until combined.
- Serve cold: Wait until both pasta and roasted vegetables are cold before combining.
- Serve hot: Wait with cooking pasta so that it's freshly cooked when the roasted vegetables are done. Drain the pasta and serve rather immediately. My preferred way.
- Drizzle over the desired amount of basil lemon vinaigrette. A little goes a long way! Start with 2 tsp and see what you like.
Notes
Leftovers can be stored covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Leftovers are best served cold. Not recommended to freeze.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Inactive Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/3
- Calories: 378
- Sugar: 6.6
- Sodium: 388
- Fat: 15.8
- Saturated Fat: 4.8
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 48.5
- Fiber: 7.3
- Protein: 13.2
- Cholesterol: 22