Sunday, February 21, 2010

Salad with Pasta


Pasta salad is not something I eat often.  It's one of those not really healthy or especially fresh items that I try to avoid at potlucks and salad bars.  Throw in some gloppy mayonnaise, flavorless black olives, and chunks of hard boiled eggs and I think I might be sick.

That said, this is a different sort of pasta salad.  I think that is because it puts the emphasis on salad.  The dressing is a tangy dijon vinaigrette, there are chunks of salty feta cheese, and simply toasted walnuts.  Tossed with a generous amount of dark green chopped spinach and nutty whole wheat pasta, this dish balances healthy ingredients without compromising flavor.  Not many pasta salads can boast the ability to satisfy the craving to eat something that is both good and good for you.  

This recipe is based on one from the dietician and cookbook author Ellie Krieger.  I mostly changed the amounts of the ingredients to my liking (I found her version a little too earnest).  

Spinach and Whole Wheat Pasta Salad
1 bag (16 oz) whole wheat rotelle pasta 
Spinach (a bag or a bunch)
Small red onion (or 1/2 a medium/large one), chopped into small pieces
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese 
1 cup walnuts, toasted and then broken into pieces
3-4 Tablespoons olive oil
3-4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 -1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves (crushed or chopped finely)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta until it is al dente and run cold water through it until it is cooled off.  Toast the walnuts in the oven (I put them in a pie plate) at 350 for 10 minutes or so, until they are browned, keeping an eye on them to make sure that they do not burn.  After you take the nuts out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes and then break them up into smaller pieces with your fingers.  Whisk the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, dijon mustard salt and pepper together, and adjust amounts to taste. Mix the chopped red onion into the dressing (this will help take some of the edge off of the raw onion, which can be overwhelmingly strong otherwise), and let it sit for a few minutes. 

Mix the dressing into the cooled pasta, and add both the feta and walnuts.  Chop up as much spinach as you want to eat right away, and mix it into your individual portion (once chopped and mixed into the salad, the spinach will wilt after a while).  The pasta salad keeps really well in the refrigerator, just as long as you keep the spinach separate.

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