Potluck Pasta Salad

23 Dec

I previously posted a recipe for brownie pumpkin pie that I took to a potluck at school. We decided to have another Christmas themed potluck that unfortunately fell on the day of snow storm Draco. Besides the ridiculousness of a blizzard with a name, class wasn’t cancelled for the storm, so I still prepared a dish to pass. Only two other people came to school, so I have been eating this pasta salad every day for four days.

I didn’t intentionally plan for this to be Christmas colored, it just happened to be the only thing I could make in a large enough quantity for 12 people. I’ve been making this recipe for years after having it at a New Year’s Eve party. Originally, I used to season the pasta with McCormick Salad Supreme, but now that I’m vegan I use a combination of other seasonings to recreate the taste. The vegetables can be substituted with others; I’d like to use orange tomatoes, peppers, and carrots for Halloween.

Ingredients:

1 box vermicelli/capellini pasta
16 oz zesty Italian dressing
1 cucumber, skin and seeds removed, diced
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2-3 sprigs green onion, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
dash of black pepper and red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse in cold water until noodles are cool. Toss into a large bowl.

2. Dice green pepper and red pepper. Cut grape tomatoes in half. Remove the seeds and skin from cucumber and dice (I left a little skin on for color.) Slice green onions into thin circles. Add all vegetables into the large bowl with the noodles and toss to distribute.

3. Pour dressing over pasta and veggies then season with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and peppers. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let sit at least 3 hours to marinate.