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.
Heather says
August 13 atI LOVE pasta salads!! Thanks for linking up to Good Tastes Tuesday!
Theresa says
August 21 atI 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
Renée ♥ says
August 21 atSo glad you like it!! I should try out that quinoa pasta – that’s a new one for me. Thanks for the tip!
Cherryl Davies says
June 14 atI 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.
Renée ♥ says
June 14 atGreat 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!