We all have a few “Go-to” meals that we pull out in a pinch, and here’s one of our favorites – a cool bowl of farm fresh awesome with a little pasta thrown in.
Summer Salad {10-Minute Dinner}
Prep Time 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 cups cold pasta
- 2 cups summer veggies sliced or chopped into your favorite sizes
- 1 can beans drained and rinsed, or the equivalent prepared
- 3/4 cup sweet corn give or take
- A little chopped fresh basil, cilantro, mint or whatever tickles your fancy
- Cilantro-Lime Dressing (See recipe below)
Instructions
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Toss everything together and chill. Or eat it right away - it's your call.
Recipe Notes
Pasta - I had leftover Rotini. If you don't have leftovers, this may take you 20 minutes - just cook your pasta, chill it fast in an ice-water bath and drain. Vegetables - I used: grape tomatoes, red onion, red pepper. Beans - I used black beans here. Small red beans work well too. Serves 8 (at least)
Cilantro-Lime Dressing
Yummy Cilantro dressing goes great on so many things - salad, rice, tacos, tortilla chips, nachos...
Prep Time 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cilantro give or take
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ cup plain yogurt option: use vegan yogurt to make this vegan-friendly
- 4 oz. roasted mild green chilies I buy the whole ones in a big can, and distribute them into freezer bags. MUCH cheaper than buying those little cans. Or you can roast a couple of mild chilies yourself.
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- Zest of one lime
Instructions
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Layer all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
Recipe Notes
For Fish or Chik'n Street Tacos: Top a warm corn tortilla with a small strip of fish, Chik'n or roasted vegetables (I like roasted eggplant), thinly shredded cabbage, shredded cheese (optional), pico de gallo, and Cilantro-Lime Dressing.
I LOVE pasta salads!! Thanks for linking up to Good Tastes Tuesday!
I usually don’t eat alot of pasta salads because I’m gluten intolerant. I substituted quinoa pasta shells for this recipe. Love it. Had family over for the afternoon and served this, they loved it too. Plus, on a side note they were eating gluten free and had no idea..lol Thanks for a delicious recipe. Will definitely use this one again. Super quick and delicious.
Thank you,
Theresa
So glad you like it!! I should try out that quinoa pasta – that’s a new one for me. Thanks for the tip!
I am always on the look out for fast, easy meals to take on the road as I drive all day and am trying to lose some weight. There are no healthy meals to be found on the road. I have found that I get bored with the same old tossed salad lunches everyday. I would appreciate any healthy options that travel well.
Great comment! This one travels very nicely, and stays good for a couple of days. I will see what I can do about coming up with some new ideas along the same line. Thanks for the idea!