One evening I was making some salad and I wasn’t totally sure what I was going to have with it. I just didn’t want to have lentils again. I normally have lentils twice a week and sometimes it just gets boring but it’s not that easy to come up with a quick and healthy meal which is a vegetarian as well and doesn’t contain lentils or chickpeas. I eat those a lot as well. Just to be clear, I am not a vegetarian, but my diet is 90% vegetarian with fish or seafood on a plate normally once a week. I don’t buy meat. I used to eat chicken but not anymore.
So I chopped some fresh vegetables which I had in the fridge, put them in a bowl and then on the spur of the moment I decided to make a cold pasta salad! I’ve never made a cold pasta salad at home before but I’ve seen it in supermarkets, only that those pasta salads were covered in fatty dressings. I decided to make mine much healthier.
Instead of white pasta I used organic wholegrain spelt pasta, much healthier alternative as it contains more fibre and protein. You can buy organic wholegrain spelt pasta on Amazon
if you cannot find it in your local health store, but buying in bulk is obviously better since it works out cheaper.
For the dressing I simply used extra virgin olive oil, lemon and salt. You could add some pepper to it as well if you like. I also added parsley on top which went really well with it and I was so happy with the results! It turned out really delicious and this could easily be lunch for work as well. I had it for my dinner. See the recipe below.
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/3 cucumber
- a handful of plum or cherry tomatoes
- some roughly chopped radishes
- 6 pitted black olives, sliced
- a sprinkle of pine nuts
- flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 50g spelt pasta
- water
- freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- pepper (if required)
- Fill a medium sized saucepan with enough water to cook your pasta in, add some salt and bring to the boil. Add spelt pasta and cook for around 8-10 minutes depending how firm you want it to be.
- While pasta is cooking prepare the vegetables. Chop cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, radishes and black olives. Also chop some parsley to have it ready for later. Keep it separate.
- Add all the vegetables apart from parsley to a medium size bowl and pour over the dressing which you made of olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Stir to combine.
- Once the pasta is ready, drain and cool by running cold water over it.
- Combine pasta and salad in a bowl and when serving add chopped parsley and pine nuts on top. Delicious and healthy dinner or lunch ready in less than 30 minutes!
- You can make this extra delicious by adding some feta or goat's cheese on top.
- You could experiment with vegetables you use in this pasta salad, so you could try adding spinach, grated carrots and even chopped courgettes.
This recipe has been entered into the following link-ups:
Recipe of The Week, run by Emily from A Mummy Too
#TastyTuesday, run by Vicki from HonestMum.com
12 Comments
This looks so bright and colourful. I love that you added avocado too as you can never have too much of that. 🙂
Thanks Jemma! I always add avocado to my salads if I have it in the fridge, it’s my favourite and so good for you! 🙂
I loved your recepie 🙂 Its so easy to make and looks yumm. Definitely gonna try Xx
I am glad you liked the recipe Maria! Yes, it’s so quick and easy to make so no excuses for unhealthy dinners or lunches 🙂
I love pasta salads & this looks delicious 🙂
Thanks Helen! I will definitely be making it again!
This looks lovely, would be ideal for a packed lunch
Thanks Alison! Yes, this would be great for a packed lunch as well.
I love the freshness that parsley adds to a salad! It’s a lovely healthy recipe too.
Adding parsley makes a big difference, I love it too!
That looks delicious, must try it with spelt pasta too, so healthy and vibrant! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
I am glad you like it Vicki! Spelt pasta is definitely better than wheat as it’s easier to digest, so I highly recommend it.