Pasta salad is the perfect cold dish to take to every summer BBQ. You can change the vegetables to really whatever you like and it still will be the dish everyone wants to grab a spoonful of. Why? BECAUSE most everyone I know loves PASTA!!! The trick to make this healthier is using less pasta, more veggies and using brown rice pasta. The texture and color of brown rice pasta is more comparable to the white flour kind and not as drastic as whole wheat. The texture of whole wheat is much denser and heavy so many people get turned off from eating it. I brought this to a cubscout committee meeting and no one except one friend and the hubby questioned the pasta choice, but everyone loved it. Evidence was in the almost empty bowl going home and actually it was just enough for me to have lunch the next day! Love that!
Typical Italian pasta salads have pepperoni, olives and cheese. Subbing the pepperoni for cooked chicken adds a lot of protein and makes this a really complete meal. You can add black olives, I just didn't have any at the time I made it and thought it was fine without, but my kids probably would have loved it more as well as cheese. Making the dish this way and having a small bowl of shredded mozzarella, black olives and even pepperoni if you like on the table, people can have the option to add those in or not.
Make this salad and add the dressing the evening before you plan to attend a BBQ will allow the flavors to marry! And oh boy so delish! Just give it a really good toss to make sure the dressing doesn't all sit at the bottom of the bowl. You can quickly make more dressing if you feel it needs more.
Serve with with or without chicken, completely up to you!
Healthier Italian Pasta Salad: Gluten Free
[sc:Ziplist]
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped zucchini
- 1 cup sweet grape tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup sweet red pepper, chopped
- ½ cup sweet yellow pepper, chopped
- 2 scallions, diced
- 4 cups cooked pasta ( I used Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta)
- ½ cup Italian Dressing
- Optional: 2 cups diced cooked chicken (light meat), black olives, mozzarella cheese
Italian Dressing
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Directions
While the pasta is cooking, add all your chopped veggies to a large bowl. Take your pasta off the heat and drain it prior to it being fully cooked, al dente is best with this dish so the pasta doesn't get mushy. Cool the pasta over cold running water, drain and then add it to the veggies. If you are using chicken add it now as well. Place all your dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until combined well. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad. Refrigerate overnight or at least an hour before serving. Serve with optional toppings on the side for guests.
Nutrition Info {Without chicken/With dressing}
Servings: 8* Calories per serving: 172* Fat: 8g* Fiber: 1g* Carbs: 25g* Sodium: 18mg* Cholesterol: 0mg* Protein: 3g* Points+: 5*
Nutrition Info { With chicken & dressing}
Servings: 8* Calories per serving: 236* Fat: 9g* Fiber: 1g* Carbs: 25g* Sodium: 45mg* Cholesterol: 30mg* Protein: 14g* Points+: 6*
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Courtney
This recipe is fantastic! Thank you so much for posting it. I've been trying to eat cleaner and leaner, and stumbled across your recipe. Now, you should know, that I usually hate the typical Italian pasta salads that people bring to a picnic. You know the kind, the ones that taste like a bottle of salad dressing was just dumped all over it and that's the only thing you taste? I LOVED your Italian dressing. It was subtle, yet flavorful- and when incorporated, I could still taste all the wonderful favors of the veggies and chicken! Brilliant. This is the best pasta salad I have ever had, and *so far* the only one I make at my house. Bonus: it's super easy! Thanks again for this healthy and delicious recipe!
The Omnivore
This sounds fantastic and thanks so much for the suggestion to use Tinkyada. I was getting VERY frustrated with the gluten-free pasta options available (and even tried making my own) but this one actually tastes like real pasta!
Liz T
Just made this and it is TASTY. So so tasty. Made it the night before and all the ingredients and dressing mixed so well. The noodles were a great texture (I think that has to do with the kind I used - same as the recipe above (Tinkyada brown rice)) and didn't get mushy or hard...they were just right.
Thanks for this awesome gluten-free recipe!
Brenda
So glad you tried it and enjoyed it. I really love that brand of pasta! You're welcome!
Jennifer
I always use this brand of pasta and it always gets hard in the fridge. Are you cooking it with salt or vinegar or anything special in the water to keep it from getting hard once refrigerated? I love cold pasta salad and I've always had to use a veggie pasta instead. I'd love to stick to my brown rice.
Brenda
Ours didn't get hard in the fridge, maybe it jsut needed more dressing. I put a good amount of salt in my water when boiling but thats it. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Angie
This looks yummy! I have trouble making cold paata salad wifh brown rice noodles as the noodles always seem to get hard once chilled. Has this happened to you?
Brenda
No I found this didn't happen. I made it the night before I needed it for the following evening. I tossed again and it was great.