Thursday, May 1, 2008

.grilled vegetable pasta salad.

This is a wonderfully light, springy/summery type pasta salad that isn't the traditional pasta salad.

I got the recipe out of a Pampered Chef cookbook. I adjusted it a little. The original recipe calls for grilled tofu, but I omitted that and added a couple new things.


First you want to start with some Rotini pasta. Boil in salt water according to the directions on the box. When it's done, drain in a colander and rinse well with COLD water. The cold water will keep the pasta from sticking together. Allow to set and drain off the water.



Dump into a bowl.










I cut thick pieces of zucchini and yellow squash. Cut asparagus stalks in half, and cut up some bell pepper. The recipe doesn't call for red onion, but I added it anyway because I like onion.. lots!



Make sure you cut the onion thick. You can use whatever mushroom you want. These are baby portabello. Aren't they so cute??? So go ahead and skewer the veggies.




Brush lightly on both sides with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.















Place on a hot BBQ grill and cook, turning often so as not to burn your veggies, until everything is nice and tender. Remove from the grill.










Cut your grilled veggies up into bite-sized pieces.



Add to the bowl of pasta.












Drizzle with Balsamic dressing and grate fresh parmesan cheese on top (about 1/2 cup). Season again with salt and pepper, and tarragon.


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_47dpr4xcgm

4 comments:

heidigoseek said...

I'm making this tonight. We need a quick meal to eat after the baseball game. I'll rate it after we eat it :) Thanks for the great ideas.

heidigoseek said...

Suz,
do you serve this chilled or room temp?
Heidi

squillen said...

I served it room temp, Heidi. Let me know how you like it!

Anonymous said...

This was great. My husband wants me to try it now....so we are going to make it next weekend. Thanks for making it I thought I would never eat a pasta salad and like it...it was delish.