Pasta Salad With Roasted Vegetables: Who Doesn’t Like Italian For Lunch?

Name: How to Make Pasta Salad With Roasted Vegetables: Who Doesn’t Like Italian For Lunch? | Easy & Delicious Pasta Salad With Roasted Vegetables: Who Doesn’t Like Italian For Lunch? Recipe
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: italian

Light, bright and colourful, a well-made pasta salad can be an excellent alternative at lunchtime, especially when served with some warm soup and a side of garlic bread. Veggies seasoned lightly with salt and pepper acquire a crispened char when roasted well and coupled with pasta and a herb-packed dressing, they can be turned into quite a sumptuous lunch alternative. Whether served warm or cold, an Italian lunch featuring a pasta salad with roasted vegetables is too delectable to resist during a weekday lunch hour.

prep time 00 Hour 15 Mins

cook time 00 Hour 30 Mins

chef Team Kitchen Diaries

Busy working days plague the busy executive with one glaring thought: what to pack in the tiffin for lunch? This lunchtime repast needs to be tasty enough to enjoy, yet nutritious enough so it fuels you to work hard throughout the day. One such dish which ticks these boxes is a delicious pasta salad.

And what takes this pasta salad up several notches is preparing it with roasted vegetables, whose crisp and bright textures elevate the complexity of this relatively straightforward dish. A pasta salad with roasted veggies becomes a recipe for an Italian lunch that simply cannot be passed over.

Preparing the pasta salad at home is quite a smooth and quick affair. In fact, veggies can be roasted while the pasta boils and the two can be tossed with the salad dressing in a matter of minutes. Chill the salad to pack it as a cold working day lunch or serve it with warm soup at room temperature while hosting a quick weekday lunch at home.

Step 1

For roasting the vegetables, preheat the oven to 200°C. Spread all assorted vegetables on a lined baking tray and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Step 2

Prop the vegetables in the oven and let them roast for 15-20 minutes. Turn once and roast until all edges are thoroughly charred.

Step 3

Now, prepare the dressing. Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper together.

Step 4

To assemble the salad, toss the cooled pasta, roasted vegetables and the dressing together. Add basil and feta cheese and toss again.

Step 5

If serving cold, chill the pasta salad in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes so all the flavours of the dressing are absorbed well. Serve with warm soup and garlic bread.

Tips and Tricks

1 Boiling the pasta al dente is one of the most crucial steps in getting the salad right. Use the TTK Prestige Tri-ply Stainless Steel Induction Base Tope to boil the pasta because it offers a wider surface area which prevents the pasta chunks from sticking to one another.

2 Roasting vegetables is the next essential element involved in preparing this salad. The TTK Prestige Oven Toaster Griller can be used to roast veggies to a light, golden crisp.

3 What builds flavour and a bit of depth into the pasta salad recipe is the dressing. A well-aerated dressing retains its freshness and spreads evenly rather well across the whole salad. The TTK Prestige Hand Blender for whisking the dressing becomes a handy kitchen tool for perfectly aerating the salad spread.

4 Adding ginger-garlic paste to the pasta salad can lend it a bit of a desi oomph. Prepare this in the chutney jar of the TTK Prestige Mixer Grinder, which will crush the two ingredients into a paste with a thick yet spreadable consistency. Lather the vegetables with this paste prior to roasting so they absorb the robust ginger-garlic flavours.

5 While using the convection is the conventional method to roast vegetables, for those who prefer the cooktop, it is just as possible to prepare the salad veggies in a tawa. Drizzle some olive oil onto a TTK Prestige Cast Iron Scratch Resistant Grill Pan to roast and crisp the vegetables for the salad, complete with little vertical char stripes.

Frequently Asked Questions

One of the common reasons for the pasta to break or turn mushy is that it has been overcooked. The pasta should be boiled al dente, that is, it should be cooked enough to be firm and chewy without turning soggy. This will retain the light and fluffy structure which the pasta brings to the salad.

Options abound when it comes to preparing different varieties of this pasta salad. While adding crumbled feta is just one of these, the salad can also be accentuated with grated cheddar or paneer for a creamier touch. Other ingredients such as olives, pickles and jalapeños can also be added to the salad recipe to elevate its brighter textures.

Tossing the pasta salad in the dressing can become a messy, clumsy affair when it is mixed in a small vessel. Toss the salad in a large bowl, using two spatulas, to shake and mix the ingredients such that the dressing coats all veggies and the pasta uniformly.

Calories 380 Kcal

Total Fat 12 g

Carbs 54 g

Protein 12 g

ESSENTIAL ITEMS

250 gm For The Salad: Boiled fusilli pasta (cooled)

1 cup Halved cherry tomatoes

1 cup Diced red and yellow bell peppers

1 cup Diced zucchini

1 cup Diced broccoli florets

0.5 cup Red onion slices

2 tbsp Olive oil (for roasting)

as per taste Salt

as per taste Pepper

3 tbsp For The Dressing: Extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp Lemon juice

1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1 tsp Honey

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 piece Finely grated garlic clove

as per taste Salt

as per taste Pepper

0.5 tsp Mixed dried herbs

0.25 cup Freshly chopped basil

0.5 cup Feta cheese

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