Healthy Pasta Salad 健康沙拉

Fancy having your pasta cold? Some of you might not like cold pasta but I adore this to bits. This is something I absolutely like to dish up for myself. I normally make a big stash of this to be kept in the fridge. Although normally served as a side, I consume this as a quick meal as well. Why not? It has protein, carbohydrates and loads of vegetables! The tangy sweetness of the dressing suits my palate just fine. If I am not careful, I could easily polish off the whole bowl. This is how good the pasta is.

My version of this cold pasta is as healthy as it can get. It is not creamy and rich with only healthy ingredients used. Yet, it tastes awesome! It is amazing how simple flavours can sometimes blend so well to produce such a perfect taste. The key to this healthy salad is maximizing its colours. Each and every colour of the vegetables somehow contain different nutrients or vitamins that complement one another. The vibrancy of colours also makes the food look absolutely appetizing. There is no fix rule here. If you don't like any of these vegetables, feel free to replace one with a similar colour. As for the pasta, you could replace with penne as well. By the way, have you wondered why cold pastas mostly uses fusili?

Healthy Pasta Salad 健康沙拉

Ingredients

150 g fusili or corkscrew, cooked
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1/4 bunch broccoli, cut into florets
2 slices cooked ham, chopped
1 sprig parsley, chopped (or 2 tsp dried parsley)

Dressing

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp orange concentrate
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced


Cooking Instruction

1. Soak all vegetables and onion in cold water. Remove and dice.

2. Cook fusili according to instruction. Drain and set aside.

3. While cooking fusili, prepare dressing. Add everything in dressing into a mixing bowl and mix well.

4. Add the cut vegetables and fusili into mixing bowl and give it a good toss. Put into fridge until needed.