Avocado Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

It’s Day Two of The Garden’s Bounty recipe series hosted by Savannah of Hammock Tracks.

Today we are talking salads.  I’ve had this pasta salad waiting in the wings for a while now, ever since I made it for my daughter’s second birthday party in early June.  I thought this would be a great time to share it with you.  While it’s probably not what you would first think about when someone mentions salads and garden produce, it does have fresh veggies in it and it’s perfect for summertime.  It’s an adaptation of one I found at The Daily Dish Recipes.

Avocado Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad


Ingredients:
1 lb. dried tri-color spiral pasta
¾ cup mayonnaise
¾ cup ranch dressing
2 avocados, pitted and cut into 1″ pieces
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
12 slices bacon, cooked and cut into 1″ pieces


Directions:
Boil the pasta as directed on the package. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool the pasta. Set aside.


In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and ranch dressing.  Set aside.


In another small bowl, toss the avocado in the lemon juice.


Pour the pasta into a large serving bowl. Add the tomatoes, sliced bacon, olives, and avocado. Gently stir in the dressing.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.


Serve cold.


Makes 12 servings.

The combination of flavors in this pasta salad is amazing.  Creamy and buttery avocado, chewy and salty bacon, juicy and tart tomatoes, tangy olives, and a cool and mildly ranch dressing to tie it all together.  So good!  It does make a lot, so it’s perfect for a crowd.  It does keep pretty well, except for the avocados.  I had some left over from my daughter’s birthday party, so I kept snacking on it for a few days.  I just ate around the avocado. 🙂

Check out the other great salads below and come back tomorrow for a soup that’s perfect for summertime.

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Cheesy Chipotle Beef and Noodle Bake

 This is a simple weeknight meal that is sure to please your family.  Think of it kind of as a beefy Mexican mac and cheese.  The inspiration for this dish came from Taste of Home, but I changed it quite a bit to better suit our tastes.

Cheesy Chipotle Beef and Noodle Bake

Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked egg noodles or other pasta
2 tsp olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (10¾ oz.) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
¼ tsp chipotle powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups crushed tortilla chips
Shredded lettuce, sour cream and/or salsa, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook noodles according to package directions; drain. 

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan.  Saute onions until beginning to get tender.  Add beef and cook over medium heat until no longer pink; drain off grease. Stir in the tomato sauce, soup, and chipotle powder. Stir in cooked noodles.

Transfer to a 2½ quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Top with tortilla chips. Serve with lettuce, sour cream and/or salsa if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

The original recipe called for nacho cheese soup, green chiles, and olives.  We don’t like green chiles, so I changed the flavor profile to chipotle instead.  I also used tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes because my husband is picky about chunks of tomato in casseroles.

I use chipotle powder in it because the first time I made it I didn’t have any canned chipotles on hand.  But you could use the canned version instead of the powder if you like.  One quarter of a teaspoon of chipotle powder might not sound like much for a whole dish, but that stuff is potent!  It really has a nice heat to it, but not so much that my 4-year-old won’t eat it.  If you like things hot, add a little more.

You can also use any kind of pasta you like in here, but the egg noodles are my favorite.

It’s really good with crushed tortilla chips on it, but I didn’t have any the night I took pics.  They add a nice crunchy texture to it.

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Chickpea "Meat"balls and Marinara

It’s time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge!  In this challenge, all the participants make and blog about the same dish each month.  Each blogger is to scour other blogs for a unique version of whatever that month’s dish is.  The goal is to highlight and promote personal food blogs. This month’s assigned dish was spaghetti and red sauce.  So we were to find a unique spaghetti recipe, make it, and blog about it.

This challenge gave me an opportunity to try something I had been wanting to for a while now.  I saw a recipe for Lentil Spaghetti Sauce and put it on my “must make” list.  We are not vegetarian, but try to eat meatless one night a week.  I get bored easily, so I’m always on the lookout for interesting and different meatless main dishes.  I made Lentil Tacos once, and my meat-loving husband raved about them, saying he loved them just as much, if not more, than their ground beef counterpart.  So I figured the lentil spaghetti sauce would be just as successful.  I was going to make that for this challenge, but then I was sidetracked by another recipe in the same category (actually on the same board in my Pinterest account).  Similar idea, but with meatless meatballs instead of a meaty sauce. The balls are made of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), and are like an Italian version of falafel.  My husband loves falafel, so I was sure it was going to be a hit.  The original recipe is from Budget Bytes.  Here’s my version.

Chickpea “Meat”balls and Marinara

Ingredients:
2 (15 oz.) cans chickpeas, drained
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, grated
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt
1 large egg
¼ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
2 (15 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp brown sugar
1½ cups water
1 tsp salt, or to taste
6 servings hot cooked spaghetti
Fresh basil, for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Place chickpeas in a food processor. Pulse until it forms a rough paste.  Transfer to a bowl and addso add the shallot, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, egg, bread crumbs, and 2 tbsp olive oil. Mix until thoroughly combined.  Measure out one tablespoon portions and roll them into a ball. Continue until all of the mixture has been made into balls.

Place balls on a baking sheet.  Place in oven and bake about 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet.  Add the chopped onion and cook until the onions have softened.  Add the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, brown sugar, and water. Stir the mixture until it is thoroughly combined. Allow the mixture to simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Taste and add salt as needed.

Serve the chickpea balls over spaghetti with the sauce spooned over top. Garnish with fresh basil, if desired.

Makes 6 servings, 6 chickpea balls each.

I changed a few things.  First, I changed up the ingredients in the balls a little bit.  I swapped out fresh parsley for dried basil and oregano.  We’re not parsley fans.  I also omitted the Parmesan because my daughter is allergic to dairy.  I also added olive oil and decreased the bread crumbs because they seemed a little dry.  Secondly, I baked the balls instead of pan frying them.  I ALWAYS bake meatballs.  It’s so much easier and they actually turn out round!  When I have tried them on the stovetop in the past, they either fall apart on me or get all funky-shaped.  I bake my balls on stoneware and they come out perfectly every time.  

I got a little impatient rolling out the balls, so they got increasingly larger as I went.  If you use the tablespoon to measure them out, you will probably get 36.

The only other major thing I changed was that I doubled the sauce recipe.  I didn’t when I made them, but we found that there wasn’t enough sauce.  I actually busted out a jar from the pantry to get us through!  So I would definitely make more sauce.

Other than the sauce issue, my family really liked this dish.  It’s a great addition to my meatless main rotation.  And it’s great for families on a budget, as each can of chickpeas cost 84 cents, while a pound of ground beef is going for about $3.99 these days.

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Secret Recipe Club: Wine-Braised Chicken and Saffron Cream over Rigatoni

It’s time again to reveal our picks for the Secret Recipe Club.   The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else’s dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It’s really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else’s recipes.  It’s a great way to “meet” other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned the blog Katherine Martinelli.  Katherine is not only a food blogger, but she is also a published food writer, travel writer and a professional photographer.  She is a native New Yorker who is currently living in Israel, so the food portion of her blog showcases a wide variety of cuisines.  This made it quite difficult to narrow my choice down to one recipe.  I found so many amazing recipes that I wanted to try.  I have recently discovered that I love making meatballs and am always on the lookout for new and different recipes, so her Turkey Meatballs with Dates, Lentils, and Yogurt Sauce definitely caught my attention.  I am also still in soup mode, so I was also intrigued by her Kitchen Sink Lentil Soup.  

Ultimately, I was not able to narrow it down to one recipe.  I made two of hers this month.  First I made her Curried Cauliflower Soup.  It’s made with roasted cauliflower = so good.  Of course, mine didn’t turn out as pretty as hers, (I need a new immersion blender badly. Mine is really old and the blades are duller than butter knives!), but it was absolutely delicious nonetheless.

Then I made her Rigatoni with Wine-Braised Chicken and Saffron Cream.  I had a jar of saffron in my cabinet that I had been anxious to use ever since I scored it for free (this was quite a score as saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and this little jar, which contained 1 tsp, cost $16).  And strangely enough, I had never cooked with rigatoni before either.  So this recipe was perfect.  

Wine-Braised Chicken and Saffron Cream over Rigatoni

Ingredients:

2 large bone-in chicken breasts

Salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, grated

1 cup white wine

1 tsp saffron threads, crushed

2 cups chicken broth

1 pound rigatoni

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Fresh basil, for garnish

Directions:

Sprinkle chicken with salt. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden, about 7 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. 

Add onions and garlic to drippings in skillet; sauté until onions are slightly softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Add wine and saffron to skillet; bring to boil. Continue to boil until liquid is thickened and reduced by half, about 8 minutes.

Add chicken broth to skillet. Return chicken to skillet; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover; simmer gently until chicken is very tender (adjust heat to prevent boiling and turn chicken over after 20 minutes), 30 to 45 minutes total. 

Transfer chicken to plate and cool. Shred chicken meat; transfer to a medium bowl and reserve.

Cook pasta in pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain; return to pot. Meanwhile, add cream to skillet and boil until sauce is reduced to 2½ cups and is thick enough to coat spoon, about 10 minutes. Stir in chicken pieces. Stir over medium heat until heated through, adding more broth to thin sauce as needed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

To serve, place rigatoni in shallow bowls and top with chicken mixture.  Garnish with chiffonade of basil.

Makes 4 servings.

I didn’t change very much about Katherine’s recipe.  I cut back on the wine a bit because I don’t like too much wine flavor in the finished dish.  I also used less garlic and I left out the lemon juice that she used.  The only other thing I did differently was that I served the chicken on top of the rigatoni while she mixed hers together.  

This dish was a big hit with my family.  My husband liked it a lot more than I thought he would.  It’s too bad I used up my entire jar of saffron because I would love to make it again soon!

Please check out Katherine’s amazing site if you haven’t already.  Thanks for the recipe, Katherine!

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Lemon Garlic Vegetable Lasagna

Last week was totally crazy.  There was a death in our congregation, a death in our family, the computer at church crashed, got a new one and it’s not compatible with the printer, and to cap it all off, on Sunday morning at 2:30 am we awoke to find a bat trapped in our bedroom.  Yep, it was one of those weeks!  

I didn’t do a lot of cooking last week, but I did manage to try out this new meatless main dish over the weekend.  It’s a veggie lasagna packed with onion, garlic, carrot, zucchini, yellow squash, mushroom, and spinach!  That’s a lot of veggies for one dish!  And they’re packed into layers of tender lasagna noodles with a creamy lemon garlic sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese.  Yum!  This is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on Kokocooks.

Lemon Garlic Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter

5 cloves garlic, grated

¼ cup flour

4 cups milk

⅔ cup fresh Parmesan, grated

Zest of 1 lemon

Salt and Pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

½ large onion, diced

½ cup matchstick carrots

1 zucchini, diced

1 yellow squash, diced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

4 cups baby spinach

9 no-boil lasagna noodles

3 cups shredded mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

For the sauce: Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute garlic in melted butter for 1 minute, stirring frequently to keep garlic from burning. Stir in the flour with a whisk and cook for another minute. Whisk in the milk, stirring vigorously to prevent lumps. Heat sauce until bubbling and thickened. Reduce heat to low, add Parmesan and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the vegetable filling: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrot and cook until soft. Add zucchini, squash, and mushrooms. Sauté another 5 minutes. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

To assemble the lasagna:Pour a little sauce in the bottom of a 9×13” deep dish baking pan. (Alternately, I use two 5x7x2” baking dishes and freeze one for later.) Spread sauce so the entire bottom is covered with a thin layer. Place 3 noodles on top of the sauce. Layer some of the vegetable filling, more sauce, then some mozzarella. Place another layer of 3 noodles on top. Layer vegetable filling, sauce, and mozzarella. For the final layer, use 3 noodles, sauce, and mozzarella. 

Bake 20-30 minutes, or until cheese is browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 20 minutes. 

Makes 8 servings.

Let me tell you, this tastes as good as it sounds.  The lemon garlic sauce is so creamy and has just the right combination of lemon and garlic.  I didn’t tell my husband about the sauce before we ate (I just called the dish “veggie lasagna”), so I wasn’t sure he would even notice the lemon.  But after the first bite, he said, “I really like the little hint of lemon in here.”  Awesome.

The original recipe called for additional layers of ricotta cheese, but I don’t like ricotta, and it seemed like there was enough going on already that I just left it out without substituting anything.  As I made it, it didn’t seem like it was missing anything at all.

The original recipe also called for half parmesan, half pecorino in the sauce, but I simplified it by using all parmesan.  It also called for traditional lasagna noodles, but I much prefer the no-boil kind.  Not only does it completely eliminate a step (and the space that step takes up on your stovetop), but I really like the consistency of them better than traditional.  When they cook up, they are thinner and more delicate than the traditional ones.  I really like that.  I think the traditional ones are thick and kind of cumbersome.  The no-boils don’t have the ruffly edges, but they kind of get over-all wavy instead (as you can see in the pic above).  If you haven’t tried them yet, I highly recommend you do.  You can use them in any recipe that calls for the traditional.

If you can’t find matchstick carrots, peel and shred two carrots instead.  I usually have matchsticks on hand, so it’s just easier for me.

 Fresh out of the oven.  You can see it’s still bubbling around the edges.  Yum!

We couldn’t wait the full 20 minutes before cutting into it, so our servings were a little sloppy.  No one seemed to mind!

This was really good, but I would definitely consider it a weekend meal, as opposed to a weeknight meal.  Any recipe that has multiple steps and requires multiple pots and pans on the stovetop is a weekend meal in my book.  But it was well worth the work!

This recipe was linked up at Jane Deere‘s Fusion Fridays. And at Church Supper #7 at Everyday Mom’s Meals.

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Spaghetti Pie

This is a recipe I have been making for about 10 years now.  I started with a recipe I saw in Cooking Light magazine, but I have changed little bits about almost every time I make it.  I think I am finally done making changes and have settled on a recipe.

Spaghetti Pie


Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. lean ground beef
15 oz. tomato sauce
1 tbsp Italian seasoning (Tuscan Sunset)
1½ cups  low-fat sour cream
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup green onions, sliced
6 oz. spaghetti (I use vermicelli)
Cooking spray
1½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.


Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and saute until onions begin to soften.  Add ground beef and cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain well, and return meat to pan. Stir in tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. 


Meanwhile, boil spaghetti according to package directions.  Combine the sour cream, cream cheese, and green onions in a medium bowl and set aside. 


Place the spaghetti noodles in a 2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Spread the sour cream mixture over spaghetti noodles. Top with meat mixture. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.


Makes 8 servings.

Here are a few pics of the layering process:

 First layer: cooked spaghetti.  I decreased the amount of spaghetti from the original recipe because I couldn’t fit it all in the pan.  And it just seemed too dense.

 Second layer: sour cream/cream cheese/green onion mixture.  This is what separates this dish from regular spaghetti.

 Third layer: meat sauce.  

 Fourth layer:  shredded cheese.  The recipe calls for cheddar, but you can use whatever you have on hand.  Here I used a cheddar/Monterey Jack blend.

 Fresh out of the oven.  Gotta love all the melty cheesy goodness.

You won’t be able to cut squares (like the first pic above) out of it when it’s hot out of the oven.  When it’s hot, you just have to dish it out with a large spoon and pile it up on your plate.  After the leftovers have been refrigerated, you can cut neat little squares out of it and warm them up.

Edit 03.15.12:

One of my fellow Crazy Cooking Challenge participants chose to make this recipe as her entry in the spaghetti with red sauce challenge.  And guess what?  She won the challenge by getting the most clicks!  Check it out:

Cheese Curd in Paradise’s Crazy Cooking Challenge: Spaghetti Pie

Congrats, Ashley!

Tomato Essence Sauce

This is a recipe I have been making for several years now, but have never blogged about until now.  It is a  yummy buttery pasta sauce that includes all of the flavor and “essence” of the tomato, but without the chunky consistency.  I got it off the side of a box of some kind of pasta or something, but I can’t remember now exactly what.

Tomato Essence Sauce


Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
¼ cup butter


Directions:
Put stock and tomatoes in a saucepan over high heat.  Cook until liquid has reduced by half, breaking up the tomatoes with a spoon as they cook.  Remove from heat and pour the tomato mixture through a fine mesh sieve, using a rubber scraper to get all the liquid out.  Discard tomato solids and put liquid back into saucepan.  Turn heat to low and add butter.  When butter has melted, whisk briskly to completely incorporate it into the tomato liquid.  Serve immediately over hot pasta.


Makes enough for 1 lb. of pasta.

I consider this a summertime dish because I would not even consider making this with grocery store “tomatoes”. Yes, I used quotes because I don’t even consider those pinky-orangey things in the grocery store tomatoes.  They have no flavor and therefore would make a disaster out of this sauce.  You have to have fresh garden or farmer’s market tomatoes to make this.  

Remember to scrape off the bottom of your sieve because a lot of tomato goodness hangs there when you are straining!

This is a very thin sauce.  It will run all over your plate.  I have considered adding some cornstarch to it to thicken it up a bit, but haven’t tried it yet.  

The picture above is this sauce on whole wheat gnocchi.  I think it’s best on gnocchi because the little potato pillows soak up all the sauce.  So good.  But I also really like it on those refrigerated ravoilis and tortellinis too.

If you have an abundance of fresh tomatoes from your garden and aren’t sure what to do with them all, give this sauce a try.

Lemon Pepper Pappardelle with Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce

This is a very versatile dish, as most pasta dishes are.  It can be a side dish, a main dish with the addition of some chicken, or a meatless main dish with the addition of some vegetables.  Which is how we had it last night.  I had bought the dried pasta at Trader Joe’s last month while in Wisconsin (we don’t have Trader Joe’s near us), and wanted to pair a sauce with it that wouldn’t just cover up the lovely lemon pepper flavor of the pasta itself.  I had never made a pasta sauce with cream before, but I happened to have some on hand for another dish that I never ended up making.  It needed to be used up, and I had a bunch of garlic on my counter that also needed to be used up, so voila!  Here’s what I came up with.

Lemon Pepper Pappardelle with Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce


Ingredients:
2 heads garlic
Olive oil
1 lb. lemon pepper pappardelle
1 cup heavy cream
Salt
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Slice the top third off the heads of garlic.  Drizzle the tops with olive oil and wrap up in foil.  Roast until garlic is completely soft, 45 minutes to an hour.  Remove from oven and let cool.


Boil pasta according to package directions, being careful not to overcook.  


Meanwhile, squeeze garlic pulp out of the paper and into a small bowl.  Mash with a rubber scraper until smooth.  Slowly stir in the cream until well incorporated.  Pour garlic cream mixture into a small saucepan set over medium heat.  Let sauce simmer until thickened, 10-15 minutes.  Add salt to taste.


When pasta is done, drain well.  Transfer to a large bowl and pour on the garlic sauce.  Toss to fully coat all the pasta.  Grate fresh Parmesan over the top.  Serve warm.


Makes 4 servings.

This was really tasty.  And pretty easy to make too.  You don’t see it in the picture, but we had this with steamed broccoli tossed in as our meatless meal for the week.  Very satisfying.

If you think two heads of garlic is too much, go ahead and roast both.  Then after you mash it up, take a little bit out and set it aside.  Make the sauce as directed, then give it a taste.  If you’re happy with it, toss the reserved garlic.  But if you think it could use more, stir in some of it.  Roasted garlic has a much milder flavor than fresh, so you can use a lot more of it without being knocked out by the garlic flavor.  If you have never roasted garlic before, I recommend you try it.  It gets really sweet; a completely different flavor profile than fresh.  My garlic heads were kind of small, so that’s why I did two.  If your garlic is really large, one might be enough.  But I say better to have too much than not enough!  Besides, you could always save the extra for some other dish.

I loved this sauce on this particular pasta because it really let the lemon pepper flavor shine through while adding another dimension of flavor as well.  It was the perfect sauce for this pasta.  But I think it would be good on any kind of pasta.  It’s not something I would eat all the time, because it is heavy cream after all, but it’s nice every now and then.

This is how my garlic looked after cutting off the top third.  You should be able to see all of the cloves.  I forgot to take an after pic, but it’s pretty!

Pasta Salad

This is the pasta salad I made for a church cookout this weekend.  It was a big hit.  I got the recipe from last month’s Food Network Magazine.  It was an article about “Mix and Match Pasta Salad.” You choose whatever kind of pasta, proteins, veggies, mix-ins, and dressing you like and it tells you how much of each to use.  Here’s how I made mine.

Pasta Salad


Ingredients:
½ lb. medium shells pasta
1 cup matchstick carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 green onion, sliced
½ cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
1 clove garlic, grated
½ cup Parmesan, freshly grated


Directions:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse in cold water.  Transfer to a large bowl.


Meanwhile, blanch carrots and peas by steaming or boiling until crisp-tender, then drain and cool in cold water.


Add carrots and peas to pasta.  Throw in the green onion and bacon.


Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic, and Parmesan.  Pour over the pasta mixture and toss.  Chill before serving.


Makes 4 servings.

The magazine didn’t say how many servings it makes.  But on my box of pasta, it says 1 lb. serves 8, so 4 is my best guess.  I quadrupled the recipe for the church cookout.  I used the microwave to blanch the carrots and peas.  I use The Pampered Chef’s microcooker, but if you don’t have one of those, put the veggies in a bowl, add water, and cover with plastic wrap.  Cook the peas and the carrots seperately.  The peas will only take about 2 minutes, while the carrots can take up to 5 minutes, depending on how thick your matchsticks are.  Be careful not to overcook the peas.  The reason they are in there is because I love how sweet they are when they pop when you bite into them.

I know some people like their pasta salad a little creamier than this.  If that’s you, multiply the dressing ingredients by one and half.

This is a really easy recipe that will taste really good at all of those Fourth of July cookouts you’re invited to!

Cilantro Noodles

This is an adaptation of a recipe I saw in Cuisine at Home.  It’s the perfect side dish for most any Asian meal.

Cilantro Noodles


Ingredients:
3 packages ramen noodles, seasoning packets discarded
2 ½ tsp olive oil
½ tsp sesame oil
1 shallot, minced
2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped


Directions:
Blanch ramen in boiling water for 3 minutes.  Drain thoroughly.


Meanwhile, heat canola oil and sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add shallot and saute until softened, about 2 minutes.


Deglaze skillet with soy sauce, then add noodles, tossing to combine.  Add more soy sauce and/or oil if noodles start to clump together.  Stir in cilantro right before serving.


Makes 4 servings.

Really easy side dish.  You might notice that there doesn’t seem to be very much cilantro in my picture.  I have been using it a lot lately (it goes really well with all the citrus dishes I’ve been making), so I didn’t have the whole ½ cup.  Next time I will definitely use the whole amount, as I love love love cilantro.

I made this to go with my Asian Turkey Meatballs with Sweet Peanut Sauce.  The saltiness of the noodles balanced out the sweet of the meatballs perfectly.