Tasty and Refreshing Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Spinach, and Feta

The temperatures rise. We feel like cooking something quick and fresh. If you are tired of pasta salads only with mayonnaise, we suggest a change of course with this recipe. Low in fat due to its dressing and ingredients, we will tell you step by step how to prepare an original cold pasta salad recipe.

When thinking of a pasta salad, we may envision something crude, boring, and repetitive. It can refer us to that suffocating image of a beach, sand and cicadas lunch box. With this cold pasta salad recipe, we want to give such a simple and practical recipe a spin. The salad that we propose has a fresher, creative and extremely appetizing point. You will be thinking about it: strawberries? And blueberries? Oh really?

Not only is it serious, it's that everything together, with the flavor of feta cheese, rocket, avocado, olive oil. The whole thing is amazing, low in fat and without abusing sauces that end up being very heavy and hypercaloric. The good thing about pasta salad is that you can substitute each ingredient for another that you like more. For example, strawberries for raspberries. Nuts for almonds, hazelnuts, cashews or directly for nuts.

If arugula bores you, you would be interested in opting for fresh spinach, lettuce or even tender shoots of various greens. The list of ingredients for a pasta salad can be as long as you want to prepare it: corn, tuna, boiled egg, orange, olives, capers.

With the sauce or the vinaigrette, the same thing happens. We have chosen a simple drizzle of olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar to keep the recipe simple and low in calories. Regarding the specific choice of pasta, some advice. To prepare a cold salad, farfalle, campanelle, fusilli or tortiglioni go very well, to name a few.

What interests us to make a tasty pasta salad are the shapes of the pasta itself, some bow-tie type, others helical and others like tiny and thicker macaroni that trap the sauces and ingredients inside. Smooth-surfaced pasta and long pasta such as spaghetti should be avoided.

Once the ingredients have been reviewed, the resounding question arises: why don't I wash the pasta under the tap with cold water? Because we take away flavor.

If we have the necessary time, instead of passing it through a strainer and immediately under a cold water tap, we can pour the pasta out of the strainer into a bowl, dish or tray, where we can let it cool naturally. Of course, we have to add approximately one tablespoon of oil for every 100 g of pasta and stir well so that the pieces of pasta do not stick to each other.

Summer is the best time to enjoy a good Mediterranean pasta salad . This dish is great for picnics, dinners on the terrace or barbecues, since you can prepare it the day before, and it can be easily transported. Of course, the dressing is added at the moment!

In these months the earth gives us, among other things, tomatoes and cucumbers . We don't have to use exotic ingredients to have a tasty, nutritious and original salad. And that is this recipe. Vegan feta cheese or keso works great, but you can also add vegan Parmesan or, if you are not vegan, some cubes of cheese, or simply toasted pine nuts.

Day 10

Ingredients

For 3 diners:

Radiatori (or your favorite), 250 g
Tomato, 100 g
Walnuts, 50g
Feta cheese, 50 g
Arugula, 25g
Blueberries, 25g
Strawberries, 10
Avocado, 1/2
Olive oil, 3 tbsp

Dressing

Olive oil, 3 tbsp
Vinegar, 1 tbsp

01: Cook and cool the pasta

We have used 250 g of radiatori. Its shape is perfect for it to take the pieces of the rest of the ingredients. Cook the pasta according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once cooked, we drain it. Instead of washing it under the tap with cold water, we transfer it to a bowl or tray. Let the temperature drop a bit naturally, add three tablespoons of olive oil. We remove and reserve.

02: Prepare all the ingredients

We hand-placed all the listed ingredients. We cut them to our liking. Once the pasta for the salad has cooled, proceed to assemble everything.

03: Assemble the cold pasta salad

Pour the cooked pasta into the bowl where we are going to serve, add the washed arugula, the washed and halved cherry tomatoes, the blueberries, the strawberries that we can cut into pieces or slices, the feta cheese, the walnuts, the avocado in slices. Separately, mix three tablespoons of olive oil with one of balsamic vinegar and salt to our liking until an emulsion is formed that will be the dressing of our cold pasta salad.

Pour the dressing over the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

04: Serve the cold pasta salad

We eat directly from the source or serve individual portions. We can add extra feta cheese —or whatever we have used—, as well as an additional drizzle of olive oil.