Warm pasta salad with basil and avocado

So, finally something that is not sweet for a change. One has to limit the amount of sweet dishes, after all, it is summer and going-to-the-beach time. That is why I decided to use avocados in the salad that I made, because this green little fruit is very useful for your health. Did you know that avocados help to lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure and can even offer significant protection against breast cancer?

Firstly, some tips for you on how to choose a perfect avocado from the shop or in the market:

- A ripe, ready to eat avocado is slightly soft but should have no dark sunken spots or cracks.

- Choose the avocado which has a slight neck, rather than the one which is rounded on top. Slight neck means that it was probably tree ripened and will therefore have better flavor.

- If you are not planning to use the avocado right away, you might want to choose a firmer avocado. It will ripen in a paper bag or in a fruit basket at room temperature within a few days. It is not recommended to refrigerate avocados until they are ripe. Once ripe, they can be kept refrigerated for up to a week.

These kinds of tips. Maybe they might come to use. In this salad I did not use the very ripe avocados, as I wanted them to keep their texture. Warm pasta and chicken also softened it a bit, so I think it was a good decision to choose a firmer avocado.

The recipe serves two:

150 g pasta (penne, rotini)
1 avocado

150 g chicken fillet, chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
handful of finely shredded Parmesan cheese
olive oil

# Boil pasta in water seasoned with salt.

# Meanwhile fry the chicken in a frying pan and season with salt an pepper.

# Using your hands, shred basil leaves into small pieces.

# Peel and chop avocado and place in a salad bowl. Drizzle over with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Add shredded basil leaves and mix everything together.

# Place cooked chicken pieces into the salad bowl on top of the avocado-mixture.

# Drain pasta and add some olive oil to it. Mix to coat the pasta with olive oil and place pasta in the salad bowl. Give everything a good toss and adjust seasoning, if necessary. You can add the Parmesan to the salad or just sprinkle the platefuls over with some of it - up to you. Serve when warm, as then you’ll feel and smell all the nice flavors dish easy salad has to offer.

I liked it a lot. At first I was afraid of the taste of warm avocado. Never had had it before, that is why…but it was all okay - and mainly because I used not so ripe avocado, which could keep its texture while warm.  And the taste! The tender avocado together with strong Parmesan cheese - perfect combination.

Spaghetti and feta cheese…

…will give you a nice salad together. I discovered it one day when I needed to quickly prepare something light from these ingredients and I did not want to end up with some creamy pasta dish. Light was the word to be kept in mind. So here’s the recipe which will feed about 3 persons:

250 g spaghetti

3 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic gloves, crushed

3 tbsp olives, sliced

1 tsp grated lemon rind

2 tbsp basil pesto

200 g feta cheese, chopped into cubes

2 tbsp lemon juice

50 g rocket leaves

7-8 cherry tomatoes (optional)

# Boil the spaghetti in a pot of boiling water (seasoned with some salt) until al dente.

# While it is cooking, heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add garlic, olives and lemon rind and simmer at low heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add pesto, stir and remove from heat.

# Drain spaghetti and place in a salad bowl. LEt it cool for about 10 minutes.

# Add cubed feta and lemon juice and give the salad a good toss. Also drizzle pesto-garlic-lemon rind mix on top.

# Finally add rocket leaves, stir carefully and serve. If you are using cherry tomatoes, add them together with the rocket leaves.

# Oh, and I remember that one time I also added chopped prosciutto to the salad, together with the rocket leaves and tomatoes. So if you like meat, feel free to add some.

That kind of salad. Be careful with the lemon juice - if you add it too much, you’ll end up with pretty acid salad. It tastes the best when warm (not too cold and not too hot). If too hot, the rocket leaves will lose their shape and turn into to ugly and tasteless thingies you don’t want to eat.

Basil and lemon pair really well with feta and rocket leaves - and the salad smells very good as well. When I have heated it for lunch at work, my office is full of lovely flavours…a bonus I would say! In many cases the reheated food does not smell that good - let’s say pasta in Alfredo sauce - I have brought it to work one time and ended up being in an office full of garlic smell…not that nice…

I remember having seen a similar recipe which uses capers and lime instead of olives and lemon. It could be just as good - but I never have limes at hand, let alone capers, so I haven’t yet had the chance to try.

Spicy peanut butter salad

I have already written that I need to have a tuna can in cupboard, just in case. The same story is with peanut butter - I don’t use it as a bread spread, only for taste in some dishes which is why I always need to have some in my kitchen. Just in case, a reason good enough for me.

So, what on earth is this. Like some leftovers tossed together. I bet J taught the same thing when he found a bowl of this in the fridge, with a post-it “warm it up and eat, will have dessert later”. Later on he asked why he had to warm it up. Because it was a salad and one is not suppose to warm salads. I don’t know where he has been living. One can and in many cases must warm up salads. At least this one, I thought it tasted better when warm. If you like peanut butter, you should try it. Here’s where I got the idea. Made some changes though, but oh it was good. Serves two (pretty huge portions though).

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp chili-garlic sauce (I used this kind of sauce)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground ginger

salt and pepper

water

200 g chicken
100 g rice noodles

1 carrot

half bell pepper

1 chicken bouillon cube

 

# Place chicken in a heavy saucepan, pour over with cold water and bring to boil.

# Add the bouillon cube and boil for about 30 minutes, until the juices run clear. You might want to add some parsley, salt or pepper or something else to spice up the chicken and the stock. I only used a bouillon cube and was satisfied with the result.

# When chicken is ready, remove it from the saucepan. Keep the stock - you’ll need it later. Shred or slice the chicken in the way you prefer.

# Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, sugar, ginger, and 100 ml stock you used for boiling the chicken. Mix until smooth. If you are preparing a larger amount of salad, it is more comfortable to use a blender or a food processor for that. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

# Grate the carrot (use  a grater with larger holes) and cut the bell pepper into matchstick-size strips. I cut them into 1cmx1xm cubes, but I guess smaller and thinner strips will go better with rice noodles.

# Soak rice noodles in hot water for a couple of minutes (I drained them in the same stock where I boiled the chicken). Drain and transfer to a bowl.

# Add carrot and bell pepper. Pour dressing over and toss to coat, adding more broth if dressing is too thick.

Yum. Although you won’t see the sauce in the picture, it is there. Its nice and light taste blew my mind! Leftovers were even better, honestly, though the next day the salad looked even less appetizing. But its not in the looks, in the taste! Next time I’d use different kind of noodles, maybe some kind of pasta. Should be just as good.

Warm potato salad

This salad goes well as a starter or as a side dish. You can even serve it with some chopped bacon and onion for lunch. Ideally it should be served warm, but it tastes good when chilled as well. Very easy to make - and you can use up the boiled potatoes from the dinner the day before.

3 potatoes

1-2 carrots

1 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp grated parmesan

1 tsp mustard

0.5 tbsp sour cream

some pepper and salt (but bear in mind that mustard, parmesan and mayonnaise will already give you a pretty salty sauce)

 

# Boil potatoes and carrots, chop and place into a bowl.

# Mix the sauce from the rest of the ingredients, warm it either in the microwave oven for about 20 seconds or in a saucepan and pour over vegetables.

# Give the salad a good toss and serve.

Green (pasta) salad

Be honest, if you look at the picture of this green sauce, what do you think? I bet that “mm, it looks yum” is not your first thought, am I right? Still, I must say it is one of the best pasta sauces I have made. So, never judge a sauce by its colour.

Rocket leaves have this lovely buttery flavour and I love to use them in salads together with iceberg or lettuce. But try using them in this pasta sauce - even better. I got the idea from this site and though I did not have all the ingredients the recipe asked for, I made a nice sauce by improvising a bit.

60 g rocket leaves

half onion, chopped

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp pine nuts - I used cashews and I must say they did not contribute much to the flavour, so I definitely recommend not to substitute pine nuts with anything else

 2-3 tbsp whipping cream

basil, salt, pepper, parley

  

 

# Chop nuts and onion. Sautee both in a saucepan in oil or butter for about 7-10 min, until onion is tender.

# Add washed rocket leaves and simmer for another few minutes.

# Mix whipping cream with water, pour it over the rocket leaves, also add Parmesan. Continue simmering for 7 minutes and remove from heat.

# Season with basil, salt, pepper and parsley. Stir and puree the sauce until smooth.

You end up with this nice green sauce which you can successfully use in preparing different pasta dishes - e.g. mix warm sauce with boiled spaghetti and you have a lovely dish for dinner.

When covered, the sauce stays in the fridge for a couple of days.

It reheats well, but I also tried it cold in the following salad:

200 g fusilli

4 tbsp green rocket leaves sauce

125 g mozzarella cheese

4-5 cherry tomatoes

Some Parmesan

 

# Mix boiled and cooled pasta with the green sauce, chopped mozzarella and diced tomatoes. Top with Parmesan.

Very nice combination and tastes even better after a few hours. Im suggesting you prepare this in the morning and bring it with you to work. By lunchtime all the flavours will have been brought out for you - yummy!