Roasted veggies and pasta give this salad a great flavor. Combine it with a sweet and fruity dressing and this salad is perfection.
Pasta Salad – Roasted Veggies Make It Happen
How you roast veggies is up to you. Since it’s summer, I use my gas grill and a BBQ grill tray.
First of all, I start by slicing my veggies and tossing them with a bit of olive oil. Garlic infused olive oil is perfect. It imparts a wonderful flavor.
I chose typical summer vegetable for this salad. Use whatever veggies you like the most!
Pasta Shapes
Spiral pasta is my favorite shape to use in salads, and my next choice is penne. However, there are so many shapes to choose that whatever strikes your fancy will probably work.
One interesting shape is gemelli. Gemelli maintains it’s body even after cooking. That makes it a good choice when you want your salad to be more filling.
Ahhh…The Dressing
I tried to think outside the box on the dressing. Most pasta salads use a mayonnaise or vinaigrette-based dressing. But I wanted to see if something sweet would work and it did.
Recently, I made a lemon poppy seed dressing experimenting with substituting a convenience ingredient. Sweet dressings lend themselves to fruit-based salads, but I found it worked very well with this vegetable-based salad.
If you don’t think that taste would appeal to you, then it’s fine to use a vinaigrette or even a bottled Italian dressing.
The Recipe
- 2 cups cooked spiral pasta, drained and rinsed
- 1 medium zucchini (courgette) sliced about ¼-inch thick
- 1 medium yellow summer squash, sliced about ¼-inch thick
- 1 medium red bell pepper, cut in 1-inch squares
- 1 baby eggplant (aubergine) sliced in ¼-inch slices
- 2-3 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- Lemon Poppy Dressing (click the link for dressing recipe)
- Heat grill to medium-high heat. If using your oven, preheat to 350 degrees F.
- For oven roasting, line a large baking sheet with parchment.
- In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with the olive oil.
- If using a grill, place vegetables in a single layer and grill for about 10 minutes, turning the veggies half way through the cook time.
- If using the oven, spread the veggies in a single layer on the prepared pan; roast for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to brown.
- Toss the roasted vegetables and pasta to combine.
- Add the dressing and toss to coat.
- Serve either at room temperature or chill for about 1 hour to serve cold.
- Store leftover salad in the refrigerator.
Yum
