Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad with Sesame Dressing

It's August. It's hot. It's humid. It's time to break out a pasta salad for dinner. This recipe (courtesy of The Recipe Critic), contains so many of the Asian flavors that we love, so I decided to give it a try.

I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for the chow mein noodles. I knew what the author was intending, which was to use the cooked and crunchy noodles. Couldn't find any here, so I made my own.

This is the package I worked with:

I eyeballed about how much I would need, broke them off from the rest of the package...

...then cooked the noodles until just done.

Then I heated up some vegetable oil in a saute pan and added them into the pan in batches.

In no time at all, I had a pile of crispy, crunchy noodles.

From there, it was just a matter of combining chicken, lettuce, pre-cooked rotini pasta, cabbage, onion, carrots, and almonds. I didn't want the chow mein noodles to get soggy, so I left them as a garnish once the salad was tossed with the dressing.

And speaking of the dressing, all it takes is vegetable oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, dijon mustard, soy sauce, sesame seeds, plus a bit of salt and pepper. Whisk it all together until combined, then pour over it over the salad.

The chow mein noodles were scattered on top and we were ready to eat.

This salad has it all -- sweet, spicy, salty, crunchy, nutty. We loved it and it will make return appearances on our table year round.

Nicoise Toasts

This recipe (courtesy of epicurious), like so many others, appeared on my Facebook feed. We really enjoy Nicoise salad and this seemed to be a fun play on it. However, I knew some substitutions would need to be made. For example:

Low-fat cottage cheese - if cottage cheese shows up in a grocery store, chances are very good that it will not be low-fat. It's regular cottage cheese, which is fine by me.

Parsley - this is not a herb generally available in Corozal, unless you have success growing your own. I substituted basil.

Lemon juice - lemons are only available on very rare occasions. We are lucky to have five varieties of limes in our yard, so I used ones that most closely mimic the taste of lemon.

Tuna packed in olive oil (preferably pole-caught) - this ingredient just slayed me. First, to find tuna in oil can be sourced, but it's not on all the grocery shelves. But pole-caught? Seriously? 

Once I stopped giggling, I got to work.

Cottage cheese, chopped hard boiled eggs, oil, basil, lime juice, capers, and some onion were combined in a bowl, then mashed together to a smooth paste.

In a separate bowl, the tomatoes, olives, more basil, oil, and lemon juice were mixed together. Then the tuna was folded into the mix.

Instead of toasting the bread, I fried the slices in some olive oil, then rubbed them with some garlic.

The egg mixture was spread on the fried bread, then covered with the tomato/tuna combo.

Dear readers, in spite of the substitutions, this tasted amazing. I do think the tomato mixture could use a little bit of brightening up...maybe a splash of red wine vinegar. But other than that, there are no complaints. Each bite gave a really delightful pop of flavor. 

So the next time a Nicoise salad strikes your fancy, give this a go and put it on fried bread. You won't be sorry.

Mexican Chopped Chicken Salad

When the heat and humidity come to play, or when our social schedule gets crazy, or when I just want to make a quick and easy meal, salad is usually the answer. 

This recipe (courtesy of Mel's Kitchen Cafe) has become one of our favorites.

Mexican Chopped Chicken Salad

Let's start with the dressing. The combo of vinegar (I use apple cider) and honey is a winner right off the bat. But when you add the cumin and oregano, wow! I often make a double batch and keep it the fridge. It's a great condiment to have not only on salads, but drizzled on sandwiches as well.

As for the salad, there are so many tasty elements involved. Between the chicken, corn, black beans, onions, olives, bell pepper, lettuce, and cilantro, there's a whole party going on.

Quick side note: I like to buy a couple of packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and saute them all up. When cooked and cooled, I pop them into zippy bags then put them in the freezer. I find it makes recipes like this even easier, and you can always use the pre-cooked chicken for other meals.

I highly recommend making this recipe in advance and letting it chill out for up to eight hours. The flavors really come together the longer you can resist not scarfing it down.

If you do have any salad left over, you might want to consider putting it a tortilla. It's another great lunch or dinner option.

Pasta Salads

We've hit that time of year when the combined heat and humidity produces "feel like" temperatures in the triple digits. As much as I love to cook, there are days when dishes that are cool, light, and refreshing are the order of the day. Enter pasta salads.

Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad with Sesame Dressing 
(Courtesy of The Recipe Critic)

While the ingredient list may appear long for some folks, don't be put off by it, especially as about half the items belong to the dressing. 

There were a couple of things I needed to adjust. I used green cabbage, instead of red because I couldn't find any at the market. The red would have really been a great addition to give the salad a pop of color. I also couldn't find chow mein noodles. Again, they would be a nice addition for added crunch.

That all being said, we loved this pasta salad. The sesame dressing was so good that I might just make a batch to have on hand for other salads.

Mediterranean Rice Noodles

(Courtesy of Epicurious)

So this is another recipe where substitutions were made, due to some ingredients being unavailable. For instance, I decided to go with linguine instead of rice noodles. Instead of green beans, broccoli joined the party. And instead of cherry tomatoes, I diced up a couple of regular ones.

In spite of the changes to the line-up, this was still a very tasty dish. The blanched broccoli added its lovely green color and a satisfying crunch.

And should we decide to change up the flavors a bit, I made some Italian dressing that can be drizzled over the salad. If you've never made your own, please give a go. It's easy and so much better than store bought.