Archive for the ‘Salads – Pasta’ Category
Kidney Bean & Macaroni Salad
I found this recipe on the internet while searching for a way to use kidney beans, and this is excellent pasta salad, if you like beans. Common ingredients, very easy to prepare. The recipe calls for a can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed, or you can do as I did and use 1½ cups of beans you cooked from dry.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry macaroni pasta
- 1 can red Kidney beans, drained, rinsed, (15 oz / 425 g), or 1½ cups cooked from dry
- ½ cup celery, diced
- ¼ cup onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or additional to taste
- salt and black pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the macaroni, cook until just tender. Drain.
- To a mixing bowl, add the macaroni, beans, celery, and onion. Mix together.
- In a small bowl, add the mayo and vinegar and mix together until smooth. Add black pepper and salt to taste.
- Pour dressing over the salad and mix together, taste and adjust pepper and salt as desired. Cover and chill in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
- Serve as a side with your choice of main dish, enjoy.
Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
I made this on 10 Sep 2023, excellent pasta salad! Common ingredients that come together quickly. This can be customized to your preference, feel free to add peas, canned tuna, or even chopped imitation crab.
Ingredients
- 250 grams dry macaroni, (8 oz)
- 1 cup mayo
- ½ cup onion, grated
- ½ cup carrot, shredded
- ½ cup celery, finely diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the macaroni. Cook the macaroni until tender, then 1 minute more, remove from heat, drain well, then add to a mixing bowl.
- To the macaroni, add the rest of the ingredients.
- Mix together. Cover and place in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Serve and enjoy.
Ham & Pineapple Pasta Salad
I made this on 11 Jun 2023, easy to put together. The Thai family and I loved this! Excellent flavor. Highly recommended.
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 250 grams dry bow tie pasta, (8 oz)
- 1 can pineapple, sliced or tidbits, reserve juice, (14 oz / 400 g)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cups cooked ham, diced
- 2-3 spring onions, thinly sliced, green and white parts
For the Dressing
- ½ cup mayo
- ⅓ cup pineapple juice
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Prep the ham, bell pepper, spring onion, and pineapple. Drain and reserve the juice from the pineapple as you will need some for the dressing. If you have tidbits, use them as is, if you have sliced rings, then cut them into pieces. Add the prepped ingredients to a mixing bowl.
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook until just tender. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.
- While the pasta is cooking, add the Dressing ingredients to a small mixing bowl and mix together until smooth.
- Add the drained pasta and dressing to the salad ingredients, gently mix together. Cover and place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Serve as a light lunch or dinner, enjoy.
Notes
Fair cost per serving.
Ham & Cheese Macaroni Salad
A basic macaroni salad that can be a light lunch or dinner, or a nice side dish. On my to make and taste list. This is a versatile macaroni salad that can be tailored to your taste or made a different way each time it is prepared.
Ingredients
- 340 grams dry macaroni, (12 oz)
- ½ cup creamy Caesar salad dressing, and as needed
- 750 grams cooked ham, cubed, (1-1½ lb)
- 250 grams Cheddar cheese, cubed, (8 oz)
- 1 onion, diced, red or yellow
- ½ cup gherkins, chopped
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally until tender.
- Drain well and place in a mixing bowl to cool.
- Cube the ham and cheese, dice the onion, chop the gherkins, and prep any additional items you want to add. (I added some chopped spring onion.)
- When the macaroni has cooled, add that to a larger mixing bowl or large pot, then add the dressing and mix together.
- Now add cubed and the diced/chopped items, fold into the pasta to coat everything with dressing, adding more dressing as needed for your desired consistency.
- Transfer to a more manageable container, cover and place in the fridge to chill and blend the flavors for 2-3 hours.
- Serve as a lunch, light dinner, or a nice side dish with any main dish. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Use Ranch or Bleu Cheese dressings. 2. Add veggies you like, such as sliced spring onion, green olives, or diced bell pepper. 3. Add some chopped hard boiled eggs or whole hard boiled quail eggs.
Macaroni Salmon Salad
This recipe is from a cookbook titled Salad Lover's Cookbook, printed in 1979. This sounds very good, on my to make and taste list. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 4 cups macaroni, cooked and cold
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded, (4 oz / 113 g)
- ⅓ cup green bell pepper, diced
- ¼ cup onion, finely diced
- ¼ cup stuffed green olives, sliced
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ cup salmon, cooked, flaked, Shortcut
- 1 cup Tangy Dressing, Shortcut
Instructions
- In a large serving or salad bowl, add all ingredients, except the dressing, and mix together.
- Fold in the dressing, cover and place in the fridge to chill before serving.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I will say fair cost for this for now, based on frozen salmon that you will steam using the Shortcut listed below. I have seen canned salmon only once and that was very pricey, frozen would be the way to go with this.
Shortcuts: Steamed Salmon (Rice Cooker), Tangy Dressing.
Mediterranean Tuna Pasta
This is a tasty, and easy to assemble, pasta salad.
Ingredients
- 340 grams dry spiral pasta, or any bite size pasta, (12 oz)
- 2 cans tuna in olive oil, (about 185 g / 5 oz each)
- 1 cup tomato, drained of juice, chopped
- ¼ cup pitted green olives, sliced, or black olives
- ¼ cup red onion, diced, or brown onion
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers, coarsely chopped
- 2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons if using tuna packed in water
- 1½ cups Mozzarella Cheese, shredded, or as desired
- salt and pepper, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, then add the pasta and cook until tender, drain. (I used small shell pasta.)
- While the water is heating for the pasta, let's prepare the rest of the salad. If the canned tuna in olive oil is good quality, no need to drain the oil, just add the tuna and oil into a large mixing bowl and omit adding the olive oil listed in the ingredients. If the tuna you are using is not good quality olive oil, or packed in soybean oil or water, drain those add the tuna to a large mixing bowl. Break up the large pieces with a fork. (I used 3 cans, 165 g / 5¾ oz each, I like a lot of tuna in a salad.)
- To the same mixing bowl, add the tomato, olives, onion, parsley, and capers.
- Mix together, this makes it easier to mix in the pasta.
- Add the pasta, cheese, olive oil, and lemon or lime juice. Gently mix together. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired. At this point you can serve this warm as a side dish, I however decided to cover and place in the fridge for a few hours to chill to serve as a main dish.
- Serve as a side dish or as a main dish. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving as a main dish as this makes a lot.
Ham & Cheese Pasta Salad
I was making another dish and wanted to make a pasta salad as a side and to make room in the fridge as well, glad I made this, it is excellent! Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 250 grams dry small pasta, small shells, spirals, or macaroni, (8 oz)
- 250 grams ham, cubed, (8 oz)
- 200 grams bacon, chopped, fried crispy, cooled, (7 oz)
- 125 grams Swiss cheese, cubed, (4 oz)
- 125 grams Cheddar cheese, cubed, (4 oz)
- 5 small dill pickles, sliced, Shortcut
- mayo, as needed
- black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water, to just tender, this way when it cools, it will be a perfect tender pasta for a cold salad. Drain well and place in a large bowl.
- While the pasta is cooking, go ahead and cube the cheese, ham, and cook the bacon. Here I used only Gouda cheese.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl, except the mayo and black pepper, and gently mix together.
- Start adding mayo, couple of large spoonfuls and mix, add more mayo as needed to just coat everything, not dripping with mayo. Season to taste with black pepper. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve as a side or as a main dish.
Notes
The ham will cost 135 Baht, the bacon 130 Baht, Swiss cheese is half a 250 gram block so that is 90 Baht, and the Cheddar cheese is half a 250 gram block to that is 90 Baht. For 10 servings, this is about $1.30 per serving, over all, not bad.
Shortcut: Fridge Dill Pickles.
Variant: 1. In place of Swiss use Gouda or use all Gouda.
