Pages

Friday, August 8, 2008

Friday Food For Thought—Grilled Veggie & Pasta Salad

You're probably thinking, barbecued salad? Is she serious? I sure am. If you try it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Salad Ingredients

3 cups penne or rotini pasta
eggplant
yellow and green
zucchini
carrots
red pepper
yellow pepper
sweet red
onion
asparagus
sugar snap peas (leave them whole)
Dressing

1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Cut all the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. In a large sesrving bowl, toss the vegetables with the dressing.

To grill the vegetables, we use a barbecue wok, similar to this one sold at Target. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the marinated vegetables into the heated wok. Grill the veggies for 10 to 15 minutes, until tender crisp. Reserve the dressing in the bowl while grilling the vegetables.

Meanwhile, cook 3 cups rotini or penne pasta according the directions on the package.

When the veggies and the pasta are cooked, put them back in the serving bowl and toss everything so it gets coated with the remaining dressing. We sometimes have the grilled vegetables without the pasta—very tasty!

Until next time,
Lee

2 comments:

Gillian Layne said...

My husband is a huge fan of grilled vegetables! Mushrooms and zucchini are his favorites, and my girls love grilled onions--they taste so sweet, it's almost like desert! (Not that I'll be giving up my chocolate or anything...;)

Thanks for the great recipe!

Lee McKenzie said...

LOL, Gillian! You won't catch me replacing chocolate with grilled onions either!

Thanks for suggesting the mushrooms. They'll work really well in this recipe. I tend not to use them because my daughter hates cooked mushrooms. She says they have the same consistency as tofu. And yes...you guessed it...she also hates tofu!