Monday I made this pasta salad for my lunches this week.
Originally I took pics along the way so I could share it with my new healthy eating students, my dad and sister.
Then I realized they can’t be the only ones who aren’t comfortable in the kitchen and still want to eat healthier.
I took a recipe I found on Pinterest and made it my own based on what I like and what I had on hand.
You’ll love the taste and it’s super nutritious of course.
Take a recipe and make it your own
I started with this recipe from Sweet Simple Vegan I had pinned and made once before.
I made several changes in technique and ingredients based on what I like and what I had on hand.
The recipe in pictures
It all starts with cooling the pasta for the salad. Spread it on the cutting board with a fork to prevent burning your fingers.
Then cut the veggies into pieces and pulse to chop in the food processor.
I always put the garlic in the bottom of the food processor to make sure it gets chopped well. You can use smaller chunks to chop faster.
Heres the size of the dice you want to have.
Use a citrus juicer to easily squeeze the lime juice into the dressing.
This is what your dressing will look like.
After all your veggies are chopped it will look like this.
And now you have the pasta in the bowl along with the corn, beans, and chopped veggies.
This is what it looks like after you mix in the dressing. And then its time to dish it up and add the extras to your bowl!
First, ingredient changes:
I didn’t use roasted corn because I didn’t want to take the time to roast it when I had half of a bag of frozen corn in the freezer. I just put it out on the patio table to thaw in the sun (instead of the microwave) while I prepared the other ingredients.
I don’t use vegan mayo, so I just used 1 cup of non-dairy yogurt.
I didn’t use any cheese or cilantro.
Normally I would sub parsley for cilantro, but I didn’t have any.
What I added:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained (1.5 cups of freshly cooked black beans)
I added the black beans for additional protein and because I had some left over in the fridge.
1 T of nutritional yeast
Ingredients:
- 16 oz fusilli pasta
- 2 1/2 cups (1/2 bag) frozen corn, defrosted
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 can (1.5 cups) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup plain unsweetened vegan yogurt
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or parsley leaves (optional)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Extras: - Tomato
- Avocado
- Alfalfa/broccoli sprouts
How I prepared it:
Make the pasta by dumping the whole bag in the Instant Pot with 4 cups of water, a little olive oil, and salt. Set it for 4 minutes and do a quick release.
The pasta turns out perfect every time this way.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot (why not?), make according to package directions.
Spread it on a large cutting board to cool. The oil keeps it from sticking together. spread it out with a fork.
Instead of chopping the veggies, put the jalapeno, red pepper, onion and garlic in the food processor and pulsed it to chop.
When the pasta is cooled, put it in a large bowl and mix in the chopped veggies.
Add the thawed corn and black beans.
For the dressing:
Put the non-dairy yogurt in a small bowl and add the chili powder, nutritional yeast, and black pepper.
Squeeze the lime juice into the dressing and stir to combine.
Mix dressing into the bowls of pasta.
Refrigerate in an airtight glass container.
Add-ins:
Top each serving with 1/2 chopped tomato, 1/4 chopped avocado, and a handful of alfalfa or broccoli sprouts.
Stir to mix in and eat.
Enjoy it the way I laid it out, or experiment and make it your own!
Health and nutrition are a big passion of mine because, without your health, all the success you can achieve is meaningless. In 1981 I started seriously studying health, nutrition, and the mind/body connection. I stopped eating meat in 1990 for health reasons and compassion for animals. In 1999 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2005, the day after Christmas, I lost my mother at the age of 69 to lung cancer. Since then, helping others to regain their health by making simple changes has become a driving force in my life.
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