Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pasta Salad with honey and mustard dressing



We had our friends over for dinner last week, on Holi.
We had a very scrumptious Gujarati thali for lunch, and they had a 'bhaang' party lunch, so preferred to go light with the dinner.
After the wonderful thali lunch of aamras (yes, mangoes are already in the market), puri, dal, rotli, 3 sabjis and more farsaan and sweets, I realised I could get high on aamras too, which is a good thing considering this is a dry(non-alcoholic) state!!

After we got back and got over with all our praises for the aamras, I decided to start thinking about what to make for dinner. My otherwise well-stocked refrigerator seemed fairly empty - the little that was there was not so interesting.
Went out and realised that most places were closed for Holi - managed to pick up grapes, apples, strawberries and capsicum !!
Got back and thought hard about what I could come up with for dinner. Digged into the refrigerator again and was quite happy with what I finally managed to make.

After going thru a lot of blogs trying to decide on the menu, I finally settled for
spaghetti with cilantro pesto from Mansi's blog and Spiced rustic bread with some modifications from Miri's blog

The baking was my second attempt(the first happened a week before that) - thats what baking does to you - it really had me hooked !

Made a pasta salad to go with it and strawberry yoghurt for dessert - you could add pineapple and other vegs too, but I was working with limited stock.
The grapes in it tasted really nice - this was the first time I tried it with grapes

Here's my pasta recipe

What you need -

1 cup fusilli (I had the three-coloured ones)
1 capsicum
2 carrots
1 apple
1 cup green grapes

Dressing

1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 tsps lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

What you do with it -

Drop the pasta in boiling water with a pich of salt and a spoon of olive oil
Cook till al dente (follow instructions on the pack)
Drain and rinse in cold water
Add a tsp of olive oil and keep aside
Chop the capsicum, carrot, apple and grapes into small pieces
Toss in the pasta
Mix all the ingredients listed under dressing and whisk well
Pour over the pasta salad
Chill for about an hour and serve

6 comments:

Cham said...

I like to have light dinner after a party. Great & quick fix pasta! U ve a beautiful space, i will check u often!

Miri said...

Looks absolutely pretty and healthy :)

SJ said...

I love pasta in shape/form!-yours looks very colourful!

Manju said...

i totally love those multicoloured pasta!! looks delicious!

Preety said...

love all the flavours you used for dressing

FH said...

Dressing sounds yum, great Pasta dish Arch. Good one! :)

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