A pasta salad, packed with flavour and one that actually can be had as a meal in itself.
Now that the weather is warming up and Spring is well and truly on its way, I find myself craving a big ol’ bowl of salad for lunch. I have been working on building up a repository of salad recipes that actually work well for lunch. Very often, salads work great as a side on an accompaniment to a meal. But if eaten as a meal itself, I find myself hungry soon after.
Today’s recipe for my Avocado Pasta salad is a hearty one. It leaves you filling satiated and full of energy for a while. I love salads because they are so versatile and you can use whatever ingredients you have access to, and still end up with a really good salad. This salad is perfect for a work lunch or even to take to a potluck, a BBQ or a picnic. Whatever the occasion, even though this salad is plant-based, it is sure to please vegans and meat-eaters alike. I have shared the omni version of this salad before and it was a popular recipe then, so I figured it was time that I tried a plant-based version. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
So, if like me, you can’t wait for summer to roll around, try this salad out.
Avocado Pasta Salad
4
servings15
minutesA pasta salad, packed with flavour and one that actually can be had as a meal in itself.
Ingredients
1/2 cup of broccoli florets1/2 cup corn kernels
2 cups uncooked macaroni
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 red capsicum
1/4 yellow capsicum
2 spring onions
1 can of red kidney beans
A little coconut bacon (optional)
- For the dressing –
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup plant coconut yogurt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt, to taste
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves and stalks, roughly chopped
A pinch of hot cayenne pepper powder (or to taste)
Directions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, add some salt. Add the broccoli florets and cook for 30 seconds to a minute, or till its done to your liking. Drain the broccoli and reserve the cooking liquid.
- To the same pot, add the corn kernels and let it cook till done. When it has cooked, scoop the corn out of the water and set aside.
- Top off the pot of cooking liquid, add some more boiling water and when the water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta. Cook till the pasta is done. Make sure the pasta is a little al dente and not overcooked.
- Drain the pasta and set aside.
- While the pasta is cooking, cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Dice the capsicum and thinly slice the spring onions.
- Blitz all the dressing ingredients till it reaches a creamy consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the cooked pasta, broccoli, corn, drained kidney beans and all the veggies. Add the dressing and gently toss to combine. If you’re using coconut bacon, add a little coconut bacon to the salad and mix through.
- Serve up and garnish with a little sprinkling of some more coconut bacon.
Enjoy!
Recipe Video
How to Make Vegan Mayonnaise
A must-have condiment, this Vegan mayonnaise recipe is simple and easy, and is perfect for sandwiches, burgers and salads.
As the days start to warm up, I start craving lighter food. Here in Australia, our summers can get pretty intense and on those hot days, I don’t really feel like cooking. I’m sure a lot of you feel the same. Thats where all the salads, sandwiches and grilling comes to the rescue. You’re probably wondering what salads, sandwiches and grilling does someone on a plant-based diet do. You’ll be very pleasantly surprised to know that there’s so much that can be done. And these recipes are beautiful, flavourful and you won’t even miss the meat / dairy etc. I’m going to share a few of those recipes with you in the days to come.
Today, I’m going to start with the basics – a good Mayonnaise recipe. Most burgers, sandwiches and even some salads call for some Mayo. And while you can purchase a jar of vegan mayo in the shops, its usually around the $7-8 mark, which I find quite pricey. After you’ve made a batch at home, you can be sure you’ll never reach for a store-bought jar again.
My vegan Mayo recipe uses just a handful of pantry staples and comes together in about 30 seconds. Yup, you heard that correctly. In the time it takes me to type this post out, I would’ve probably whipped up a dozen batches of this mayo, if not more.
I use an immersion blender to whip up my Mayo and this makes the whole process super easy. Here’s another handy tip for you – if you can find a jar with a mouth wide enough to fit your immersion blender, you can make and store your mayo in the same jar. So there’s minimal washing too. I store my Mayo in an airtight glass jar in the fridge and it easily lasts for a couple of weeks.
Why Vegan Mayo?
For those on a plant-based diet, its the only way to go. But even if you’re not strictly plant-based, some folks are allergic to eggs and a lot of folks don’t like the idea of raw eggs in the mayo.
In any case, this mayonnaise has a much longer shelf life than the kind that uses eggs. You’ll be amazed at the taste and texture. If you personally didn’t make this stuff, you wouldn’t even be able to tell that it is vegan.
I really hope you try this recipe out.
Here are a few ways in which I use this Mayo –
Vegan Black Bean Burgers
Wasabi Mayonnaise in Vegan Sushi Bowls
How to Make Vegan Mayonnaise
Cuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy5
minutesA must-have condiment, this Vegan mayonnaise recipe is simple and easy, and is perfect for sandwiches, burgers and salads.
Ingredients
1/2 cup Soy milk
1 cup sunflower oil
1/2 – 1 teaspoon mustard
1 – 1 1/2 tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
A little salt, to taste
Directions
- Place all the ingredients in a clean, dry jar. Use an immersion blender and place the head at the bottom of the jar. Blitz everything together and slowly and gradually lift the immersion blender to the top. As you move the blender, the oil and milk will emulsify and in seconds you’ll be left with a gorgeous batch of Mayonnaise.
- Store in a clean, dry, airtight container in the fridge and use as needed.
Recipe Video
Notes
Kale Salad – perfect for the Holidays
A vibrant and colourful salad that’s so full of flavour, this light and refreshing Kale Salad makes a stunning addition to your Holiday menu.
In most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the Holiday Menu consists of warm and hearty mains and sides. Not here. In Australia, we’re smack bang in the middle of summer at the moment. And while a lot of households will have a roast of some sort, a lot of the food made for the day is light and fresh. At this time of the year, the weather is beautiful and everyone wants to enjoy the outdoors and spend time with family. No one wants to spend the day slaving away in the kitchen.
And while most of the meal is usually meticulously planned, it sometimes happens that a salad in thrown together in a hurry. You don’t want to do that. A salad is light, refreshing and can be healthy, if you choose to make it that way. This Kale Salad that I’m going to share with you today ticks all those boxes.
And while a lot of folks don’t often enjoy Kale in any form, let alone in a salad, wait till you see this one. There’s very little prep involved. However, with a little attention, the Kale leaves get tender and super delicious. And the dressing is light and simple but so flavourful. This is one of my all-time favourite salads.
Can this salad be made in advance?
Most of the prep for this salad can be done a day ahead, with just the final touches and assembly done on the day you intend to serve it up.
The process of de-stemming (is that even a word? Let’s pretend that it is) the Kale and tear the leaves is probably what takes the longest. And this bit can be done on the previous day. You can also make your dressing a day or two ahead. Just make sure you whisk it all together before you dress the salad.
The rest of the salad comes together in a few minutes.
So let’s take a look at the recipe now, shall we?
Kale Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutesA vibrant and colourful salad that’s so full of flavour, this light and refreshing Kale Salad makes a stunning addition to your Holiday menu.
Ingredients
- For the salad –
4-6 stalks of Kale
1 large carrot (or 2 small carrots), grated
1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
- For the dressing –
1/2 clove of garlic, finely chopped / grated
2 teaspoons Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 teaspoon Hot English mustard
1/4 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt, to taste
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Prep the kale by tearing away the thick stalk in the middle of each leaf and tearing the leafy greens into smaller pieces. Wash and drain well. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
- Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing till well incorporated. Check for seasoning and adjust as needed.
- Pour a tablespoon of the dressing over the prepped kale leaves and massage the leaves for 2-3 minutes. At the end of this 2-3 massage, all the leaves should appear a nice vibrant green and should be covered with all the dressing. If the leaves feel too dry while massaging, add another spoonful of the dressing and continue the process.
- Now add all the other ingredients to the bowl. Drizzle a little more of the dressing over the salad as needed and toss well. Serve up.
Recipe Video
Quick and Easy Cole Slaw Salad
And if I’ve piqued your interest about food made from scratch, take a look around my blog. You’re sure to find recipes to try out.
Quick and Easy Cole Slaw Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy2
servings10
minutesAn easy and delicious Salad that makes a perfect side at a Barbeque.
Ingredients
3 tbsp Homemade Mayonnaise
1/2 tsp grated Horseradish, or to taste
1/2 tsp Wholegrain or Dijon mustard, or to taste
1 carrot, grated
1 cup cabbage, finely sliced cabbage
A few slices of onion (finely sliced) or 1 spring onion, sliced
Salt, to taste
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Lime juice / lemon juice, to taste
Directions
- In a bowl, mix the mayo, horseradish, mustard and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Add the carrots, cabbage and onion and mix well.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
Your Cole Slaw is ready to serve.
Enjoy!!!
Recipe Video
30-second Homemade Mayonnaise
For me, the homemade Mayo craze started years ago, back when I was in Bombay. At that time, it was hard to find mayonnaise in stores. The good stuff was usually imported and cost a small fortune. The locally made stuff just didn’t tick the boxes for me. So my husband and I decided to try making mayonnaise at home. A few struggled attempts later, we nailed down our recipe and method and I had posted that recipe here. It was just how we liked it and we could make as much as we needed in a few minutes. I have to say, it has been years since I’ve purchased mayonnaise from a store, except for a couple of times when we just moved to Australia and we waiting on our kitchen appliances and the rest of our stuff to get here.
A couple of years ago, I caught a little snippet of Matt Preston whipping up a batch of Mayonnaise and I simply had to try it with my recipe to see if it worked. The beauty of this method is that it takes about 30 seconds from start to finish to whip up a batch of mayonnaise with minimal clean up after. Since then we’ve never looked back. And today I’m going to share with you my recipe for 30-second Homemade Mayonnaise.
If you’ve every considered making Mayo at home, but thought it was too difficult or too fussy, I urge you to try this out. This is how I like my Mayo. The best part is, you can adjust the salt, sugar and vinegar in the recipe to make it just right for you. Added bonus, no nasties. You know exactly what has gone into making your jar of mayo. So I really hope you try it out soon.
30-second Homemade Mayonnaise
1 fresh, free range egg
3/4 cup oil (I used sunflower oil but any mild flavored oil will do)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 – 2 tsp apple cider vinegar, or to taste
Salt, to taste
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
Place all the ingredients in a clean and dry jar.
Place the blade of the immersion blender at the bottom of the jar and start it off at a medium speed.
Very slowly raise the blender toward to top of the oil in the jar. You should feel a little resistance as you do this from the emulsifying mayo below.
The mayonnaise is ready to use. You can close the jar and refrigerate till you are ready to use it.
You can watch the video recipe here –
Goan Dried Prawn Kismur – A Goan dried prawn salad
Kismur is a Goan prawn and coconut salad of sorts. It’s not your typical salad with dressing, but its more like a stir fry that is served at room temperature. And I use the term stir fry very loosely here as the ingredients are all sauteed before tossing together. In Goa, sun dried fish is very commonly found and used. In the summer, when fresh fish is abundant, they are prepped, salted and sun dried and this fish can then be stored for months at room temperature. You can find big mounds of dried fish and prawns at any Goan market. This dried fish is best purchased in the summer when everything is nice and dry. The fish is then stored for use during the monsoon, when fresh fish is not easily available. A lot of Goan homes serve this dried fish (also called salt fish because of the way it is cured) along with a Sorak (plain Goan curry) or a dal or a vegetable curry as a condiment. You can’t really eat as much of the salt fish as you would fresh fish but it makes for a very tasty accompaniment to a vegetarian meal. Dried prawns on the other hand, are used to make warm chilly fries / stir fries, salads and this Kismur. Now that I’ve found good dried prawns, I see a chilly fry coming up in the near future.
But today, I’m going to share with you a quick and simple version of Kismur. It is ridiculously simple to make and if you’re anything like me, you will absolutely love it. Please note, that since this is almost like a salad, the quantities listed below are approximates of what I used.
Goan Dried Prawn Kismur
1/3 cup dried prawns
1/2 a large onion, chopped
1/3 cup freshly grated coconut
1 red / green chilly, split in quarters lengthwise
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chilly powder
1 tbsp coconut oil
Salt, to taste
Lemon wedges, to serve
Wash the prawns under cold running water and drain.
Dry roast them on a pan till crispy again, stirring frequently, so that it doesn’t burn.
Tip the prawns onto a plate and set aside.
Heat the coconut oil over medium high heat in a pan.
Add the chopped onion and saute for a minute or so till the onions have only slightly warmed through.
Add the roasted prawns and stir.
Now add the chilly, coconut, turmeric powder, chilly powder and salt. Mix well.
Place into a serving bowl and serve with some wedges of lime for those who might want to squeeze some lime over.
Serve at room temperature with some steaming hot rice and curry. (Fish curry recipe to follow. Watch this space.)
Enjoy!!!
Baby Spinach Salad with a Balsamic Glaze
Since the salad was so simple, there is very little to do to assemble it. This makes it perfect if you have to make a great big batch to feed a crowd this holiday season. The homemade version was so good, I hardly got a couple of bites of it. The husband, who initially was very skeptical about the simplicity and the ‘no mayo’ nature of the salad, almost wiped the plate clean. So I can tell you that this recipe has been tried and tested and has received the highest seal of approval (well, in my house atleast).
This is not an exact recipe. You simply add the ingredients to your liking and taste and it will turn out fantastic.
Baby Spinach Salad with a Balsamic Glaze
A couple of handfuls of baby spinach (you could also use rocket or any salad greens of your choice)
A few cherry tomatoes
Feta cheese, to taste
Freshly crushed black pepper, to taste
Balsamic glaze, to taste
Place the baby spinach / salad greens on your salad plate.
Halve the cherry tomatoes and place it evenly around the plate.
Crumble some feta cheese on top. (Please note, the feta cheese is salty, so add as much or as little as you’d like. No additional salt in used as the feta seasons the salad.)
Sprinkle a little freshly cracked black pepper on top.
Drizzle a little balsamic glaze over everything to finish it off.
Sit back and look at this gorgeous work or art.
Serve up and enjoy.
Avocado Pasta Salad
I tried out this amazing Avocado Pasta Salad over the weekend and it was a big hit. There is a little stove time involved to boil the pasta and to fry the bacon, but the end result is so good, I’d say it was well worth it. I can’t wait for the next potluck or picnic, because I know that this salad will make an appearance.
The dressing is an avocado based one and is super easy to make. If you have an immersion blender, you life will be even easier. If not, just use your regular blender and you’ll be sorted. Basically all the ingredients for the dressing get blitzed together and ta-da …. you have yourself a salad dressing. I love recipes that are as easy as this. The ingredient list for the salad is just an approximation of what I used. Feel free to adjust as needed.
Avocado Pasta Salad
Serves 4 (as Main Course)
2 cups uncooked Macaroni
1/4 onion, finely chopped (use a sweeter onion if you can’t stand the heat from a raw onion. You can also use a couple of spring onions, finely sliced)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup boiled / roast chicken, shredded
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 avocado, diced
4 rashers of bacon, fried till crisp and chopped / crumbled
1/4-1/3 capsicum (I used green because thats all I had. You can use red or yellow too, or even a combination of them.)
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
For the dressing –
1 ripe avocado
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander (use the leaves and the stalks)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Salt, to taste
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Boil the pasta till al dente, following the package instructions. Run under cold water to stop the cooking process and to cool the pasta down. Drain and set aside.
Blanch the broccoli florets in boiling, salted water till it is a vibrant green, about 30 seconds to a minute, depending on how crunchy you like your broccoli. Immediately drain and immerse the broccoli in ice cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process. Drain and keep aside.
In the same pot of boiling water, boil your sweet corn kernels till done. Drain and set aside.
Get your salad ingredients ready.
For the dressing, simply blitz all the ingredients together.
Toss the salad in the dressing and refrigerate for about 1 hour before serving.
Enjoy!!!
Pin now and try later!!!
Mediterranean Salad
This (sort of) Mediterranean Salad came together thanks to a colleague who put me on to the wonderful combination of roasted peppers, grilled eggplant and feta. She was putting together a sandwich for lunch using these lovelies and I thought to myself, I could make this into a salad and see how it works out. So on my way home, I stopped by my local Coles and went straight to their deli section and picked up some Danish feta and grilled eggplant. I have yet to work out how to make this eggplant at home. While I strongly believe that made from scratch is way better than store bought, sometimes you need to be open to using a store bought shortcut, especially when you haven’t made anything for lunch and need something real quick. Enter, store bought fire roasted peppers; another thing I want to make at home.
Back to the salad. It essentially is made up of veggies, the condiments mentioned above and feta – that’s it! No dressing or anything. The best part is you wont even miss the dressing. The feta is soft, creamy, sharp and salty, so it takes the salad to a whole new level. Feel free to add or take away from this salad and make it your own. I have made this salad a few times and both, my husband and I love it. I made it with and without olives, so feel free to use them, or not. Also, toasted pine nuts on the salad would be divine. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner, but I fully intend adding them to the salad when I make it next. This salad would make a wonderful addition to any barbecue as well.
Mediterranean Salad
A couple of handfuls of Salad leaves (I use the 4 leaf mix from Cole’s)
1 fresh tomato, cut into chunks
Sliced cucumber (about 1/2 cups worth)
A few slivers of thinly sliced red onion
2-3 slices grilled eggplant, roughly chopped
A few slices roasted peppers, roughly chopped
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Danish feta, to taste
Place all the ingredients except the feta in a bowl and toss together.
Crumble the feta over the salad and lightly toss.
Serve.
** This salad also makes a lovely veg. sandwich.
Disclaimer: I haven’t been compensated for this post either monetarily or in kind. I just happen to shop at Coles and that’s why the mention.
Sriracha Chinese Cucumber Salad
