Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad

pasta salad

Here’s a little something I came up with for my BBQ this past weekend.  Many of my friends are vegetarians and ALL of my friends are healthy eaters.  I thought this would make a great side dish (or main dish for any who preferred it).

This also makes a great picnic or potluck dish as there is no mayonnaise so it can be left out of the fridge for a little bit.  Actually, it tastes better at room temperature.  Bonus is that it is easy, filling and the recipe yields A LOT!

Ingredients:

  • 2, 12-16 oz boxes of tricolor rotelle pasta
  • 1, 16 oz package of fresh broccoli florets
  • 3-4 green zucchini
  • 3-4 yellow squash
  • shredded carrots
  • 1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1, 8 oz can of small pitted black olives
  • 1, 12-16 oz container of crumbled feta cheese
  • Italian Dressing of your choice (I used Wishbone Robusto Italian)
  • Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)

Directions: 

Farro Kale Broccoli Bowls

farro salad

While at the grocery store the other day, I went through the grain aisle and was going to pick up some more quinoa when I saw a bag of farro.  Its actually extremely healthy and packs tons of fiber and protein! I’d never tried it so I thought it might be fun to try to incorporate into dinner some how. Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients:

  • farro: cook using package directions
  • raw kale (serious super food packed with tons of vitamins and minerals, delicious raw or cooked.)
  • broccoli and cauliflower florets (“steam in a bag” is ideal for this)
  • balsamic vinaigrette (see Nicoise Salad article for instructions on how to make this)

Directions:

  1. cook farro using package directions
  2. steam broccoli and cauliflower florets
  3. in a bowl layer farro, raw kale, florets and drizzle with vinaigrette

Delicious and insanely healthy.  So many vitamins, so much fiber and protein.  Couldn’t get simpler or more delicious 🙂