With a crisp mix of fruit and veggies, this easy strawberry cucumber pasta salad is tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, almonds, arugula and blue cheese.
When I make pasta salad, I like to include A LOT of vegetables. It’s to the point that I’m not sure if it counts as pasta salad or a salad with pasta.
This can involve things like tomatoes, mushrooms, kale or some combination.
When spring and summer roll around, I get even more enthusiastic about changing the ratio of vegetables to pasta.
There’s just so much good produce in season that I like to celebrate it by adding as much as I can to any dish that will take it.
Since noodles are pretty hearty, they can withstand the weight. Also, there’s really no such thing as including too many veggies.
This strawberry cucumber pasta salad takes things a step further by using fruit and vegetables.
It has this wonderful fresh flavor. Plus I love using a sweet ingredient in a savory dish. And berries are one of my favorite ways to do this.
When you have the right mix of ingredients, you can’t go wrong incorporating fruit into salad.
This is what you need for the pasta salad:
The only cooking you have to do for this recipe is the pasta. So I always start with that to get it out of the way.
The moment the pasta is cooked just to the point of being al dente, I pour it into a colander and give the noodles a good rinse in cold water. This prevents them from sticking together and stops the warm pasta from continuing to cook.
Then I put the farfalle into a large bowl and fold in the strawberries, cucumbers, arugula, scallions, almonds and blue cheese.
Next, I make the vinaigrette. I whisk together minced garlic, mustard, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Finally, I stir the balsamic vinaigrette into the pasta salad.
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With a crisp mix of fruit and veggies, this easy strawberry cucumber pasta salad is tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, almonds, arugula & blue cheese.
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