Anyone have a simple healthy/low cal pasta salad recipe that even I can't ruin?

alondrakayy

I don't cook, bake, etc... mainly because I'm not good at it AT ALL! but I really want some past and I wanna try to make it myself instead of buying it.

HeidiCooksSupper

Cooking is like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Start with easy stuff and know that even the best cooks sometimes go directly from the stove to the garbage disposal. Happily, there are plenty of videos on YouTube showing you how to cook.

There are a g'zillion pasta salad recipes online. It's really very easy to make. It has three basic parts: the pasta, the veggies, and a dressing. You can choose what pasta, veggies and dressing ingredients you want to use.

If you are not sure how to boil pasta or cut vegetables or make a dressing, there are plenty of videos for these. Just go to youtube and put in something like "how to chop green peppers" or "how to boil macaroni" and you'll find nice, short, straightforward videos. For years, the only thing that was clear when I tried to cut up a chicken was that the chicken lost. Once I watched a youtube video showing how to do it, I was all set.

Dressings needn't be hard. You can even use bottled dressings or a combination of a bottled dressing and mayonnaise. Basically, something oily + something acidic + herbs/spices = dressing. You can even leave out the herbs and spices for a very plain dressing. For the oily component, you can use olive oil or another vegetable oil and for the acid, any vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice. The herbs and spices are only limited by what you like. To make the dressing creamy, add something creamy like mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese or the like.

Now, you asked for "healthy/low cal" pasta salad. Some pasta salads are higher calorie than others but few are really "low cal." Both pasta and any oil- or mayonnaise-based dressings are quite calorie dense. One of the ways to reduce the calories is to use more vegetables and less pasta. Another is to choose a low calorie dressing. I like to substitute Daisy Light Sour Cream for some of the mayonnaise to reduce calories without reducing creaminess.

To increase the "healthy" aspects of a pasta salad, up the proportion of vegetables and use a whole grain pasta. Up the protein level by adding cooked chicken or a can of tuna.

kimny72

I'll sometimes boil up some penne, chop up a bunch of peppers and cucumbers, rinse a can of chickpeas, and combine everything with bottled balsamic vinaigrette and pop it in the fridge for the weeks lunches.

lorrpb

Small shells, canned baby shrimp, Italian dressing.

Spiderpug

Give yourself base - I use wholewheat pasta with a passata with basil then add in different things each time i.e. Chopped tomatoes and mozzarella chunks, or tuna

Cbean08

This is my mash up -

chopped broccoli, red pepper, red onion, cucumber and sundried tomato
diced chicken
feta cheese
rotini noodles
dressing - ground mustard, vinegar, paprika, salt, pepper and oregano