Cold Pasta Salad is a type of salad that makes use of pasta, vegetables, and dressings; is quick and easy to prepare and a great tasting salad accompaniment to the main meal or may be consumed as a full meal in itself. There are numerous healthy ingredients that may be included to make this salad nothing less than a visual and sensory treat.
Ingredients and Preparation
Cold pasta salad is a recommended dish for pot lucks and easy to make. It can be made with or without chicken, with penne pasta, olive oil, celery, green pepper, green onions, black olives, pimientos, mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Sun dried tomatoes can be used to make it more flavorful and exotic.
Basic ingredients needed include-
1. Pasta of any desirable form, shape, size, colour.
2. Vegetables – popular choices being celery, onions, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, cabbage, tomato.
3. Any non-vegetarian addition like seafood such as shrimp or tuna, chicken, cheese etc.
4. Dressings – either readymade or prepared.
Preparation of the Cold Pasta Salad is quite simple, and involves pre-preparation procedures of chopping vegetables, cooking the pasta, preparing the dressings as below-
• Creamy Dressing- Mixing a cup of mayonnaise, with 2 tablespoons of wine or vinegar and seasoning with crushed pepper, garlic cloves, basil or mint and salt.
• Oil or Vinegar Dressing- To salad oil, some balsamic / apple cider vinegar or wine is added along with crushed garlic cloves, basil or oregano; salt and pepper or paprika are added.
In a large salad bowl, the cooked and cooled pasta is placed, vegetables added along with other additions (if any), then the dressing of choice is added finally and the mixture is tossed well so all ingredients are seasoned and flavours uniformly spread.
Either the basic ingredients can be prepared and chilled and finally mixed just before serving or the salad can be prepared and refrigerated and served chilled.
A cold pasta salad is a tempting and attractive addition to any meal. Hence it would be wise to use healthy ingredients to cater to the needs of each and everyone, to make this a nutritious delight savoured by all.
Nutrition Information
Evidently it is the choice of ingredients that determines the nutritive value of the cold pasta salad. However, an average serving provides the following –
• Total calorie content of 108 of which calories from fat are 29.
• Total fat is 2.98 g of which saturated fat is 1.5 g and cholesterol content is 6.1 mg
• Sodium content is 51.7 mg.
• Total carbohydrate is 58.2 g of which dietary fibre accounts for 4.29 g and sugar 2.0 g
• Protein value is 7.26 g.
• The estimated calorie distribution is 12.3% from fats, 75.4% from carbohydrates, and 12.3% from Protein.
Ways to improve nutritional value of Cold Pasta Salad
• Addition of whole wheat couscous in part or as a complete replacement to pasta would still retain the flavours as this ingredient easily takes on all the flavours of the dish while making it highly nutritional in terms of providing a wealth of fibre, B-vitamins apart from carbohydrates that supply energy and proteins needed to maintain the body tissues. Also couscous is quite satiating, thereby making it possible to rely on smaller portion sizes. This makes it useful to overweight persons, diabetics -also owing to the slower rate of glucose entering the blood, and persons with elevated cholesterol as fibre aids in reducing it.
• A vinaigrette and olive oil dressing would make for healthy options used in dressing as these help lower the saturated fat; instead of heavy mayo and cream that increase saturated fat content. Olive oil provides unsaturated fats that help lower bad or LDL cholesterol. Similar benefits are attained using even small inputs of sesame oil, peanut oil.
• Use of plenty of flavouring agents and special ingredients, even in small amounts would be helpful not only as flavour enhancers but also as source of antioxidants e.g. fresh herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, ginger, lemon grass.
• Veggies such as cherry tomatoes, corn, fruits like pomegranates, oranges, pineapple, apple, grapes, greens like lettuce, spinach, rocket leaves come with not only high amounts of Vitamins – A, C, K but also many minerals like potassium, iron, phosphorus and other trace minerals that immensely benefit the health and wellbeing.
• Use of flaxseeds, sesame seeds, pine nuts, walnuts, Vitamin E, minerals like magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, manganese, iron, protein, fibre, and mono and polyunsaturated fats, essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that have more positive health impacts on the body.
• Studies have revealed how some of the above ingredients have potentially doubled or even tripled the antioxidant values of the salad by a phenomenon known as “antioxidant networking” whereby agents like herbs and spices work synergistically with foods to amplify the antioxidant value manifold and thus confer a host of benefits to the consumer.