Fridge raid pasta salad
Photo: Li Lee
This recipe is going to annoy the f@&$ outta those who look to recipes as a precise blueprint for their meals. For those people I warn you - proceed with caution! For the free spirits out there that laugh in the face of a recipe, this one might be for you.
Image: giphy.com
The recipe’s name really leaves nothing to the imagination about the dish. This pasta salad is just a dump station for all the tid bits of food forgotten in your fridge. Food that might be on its last legs, or that is one more unnecessary Trader Joe's trip from being retired to the garbage. What I truly love about this recipe is that you can make it a side dish or a full meal based simply off of what you put in there. I've made this pasta salad for dinner one night and I've also made it as my contribution to the cookout. Each time it SLAPPED!
It's really simple and only consists of three parts.
THE RECIPE
1) Cooked pasta - you can use as much or as little as you like. I like corkscrew pasta (rotini if ya fancy) but really any pasta can do. Simply cook the pasta as directed on the box, drain and cool.
2) Dressing - again, you use as much or as little as you like! This recipe refrigerates really well and can also double as a salad dressing.
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar of choice
Salt/pepper to taste
Whisk or blend until combined
You can also customize this dressing to go with the theme of your salad. Add a lil lime juice (instead of vinegar), cumin and canned chipotle in adobo for a south-of-the-border feel. Add dijon mustard to get French with it. You can even add sesame oil (coupled with olive oil), minced ginger and rice wine vinegar to have an Asian-style salad.
3) Fixings - now this part is where your inner Iron Chef can thrive. You can use anything available to you in your fridge. Try and use up those leftover veggies and herbs that have seen better days and that cut up piece of onion you shoved in your butter door (I know it's there 👀). In this iteration, I did a Mediterranean one with leftover roasted peppers, tomatoes and red onions, crumbled feta cheese, and jarred marinated artichoke hearts.
Other great combos are:
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Rotisserie chicken, corn, peppers, canned black beans, avocado, chopped cilantro
Roasted broccoli, asparagus, kale, chimichurri sauce
Pepperoni, mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, basil pesto, chopped basil
Canned tuna (in water), string beans, boiled eggs, parsley, olives (play on a tuna niçoise)
Simply mix your pasta and fixings together in a container, pour the dressing over the top and toss. This salad tastes good the same day but gets even better the next. All in all, have fun, be creative and raid your fridge with the knowledge that you will be making what's old new again!
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