Yield: 4

Cold Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

Who doesn't love pasta?! And this pasta salad with Italian dressing is absolutely delicious!! Plus you're getting all the nutrients of a salad plus the yumminess of the pasta! PERFECT!

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fusilli pasta
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
  • 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 cup julienned bell peppers (red, green, yellow and orange)

For the Italian Dressing

  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp oregano dried
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp lemon powder (or 1 tsp fresh lemon juice)
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbsp vinegar

Instructions

  1. Start off with boiling the pasta - follow instructions on the label of the pasta packaging. Fusilli normally takes 8-10 minutes to reach al dente. Drain and set aside.
  2. For the Italian dressing, add all ingredients listed for it above and mix thoroughly.
  3. Add in the halved cherry tomatoes, julienned bell peppers to the pasta as well as the Italian dressing. Toss well.
  4. Add in the finely chopped parsley and toss some more.
  5. Chill in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes and serve.

Notes

1. Olive oil makes the taste of the dressing a lot richer, but you can use regular canola oil instead if you don't have any olive oil at home.

2. In case you don't have any lemon powder, you can substitute 1/2 tsp lemon powder with 1 tsp fresh lemon juice.

3. Free free to add julienned carrots and pitted black olives - we absolutely love those two in this salad as well!

4. We like to boil the pasta first, and once it's al dente and drained, we pop it in a metal bowl and into the fridge. While it's chilling in fridge, we start chopping up the vegetables and preparing the salad, so that the pasta has time to cool a bit - trust me it tastes even better this way! Alternatively, you could prepare the whole salad and chill it for 30 minutes before serving.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 470Total Fat: 35gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 29gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 588mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 3gSugar: 3gProtein: 6g