Store Cupboard Pasta Salad

 

Good Morning!

I can't believe we're already half way through May! It only feels like two minutes ago that I was trying to think of all the different lunches to eat in April.

One of my favourite lunches to make is really easy. Pasta salad. The best bit is the basic thing is all store cupboard ingredients. Of course you can jazz it up by adding fresh stuff but you can whip up a pretty darn tasty lunch in mere minutes with the help of a few jars.

You will need:

• Cold cooked pasta (deliberately cooking too much when you make your spag bol is a great tip)!
• A jar of pesto (I'm using red because that's what was open, but the traditional green basil pesto is delicious)!

Other things you may want to use:

• A jar of chargrilled peppers
• A jar of sundried tomatoes
• Fresh cherry tomatoes
• A pepper
• Herbs (basil and chives are really good)
• Spinach (or other salad leaves)
• Spring onions
• Cheese
• Maybe a meat?
• Anything else you like!

 

The Ingredients

I've gone for a very red themed pasta this time round. Because I'm using red pesto I haven't used the sundried tomatoes but if I was using green pesto I totally would!

Oh, and yes, that is my incredibly old iPod charging up there.

 

Chuck in the ingredients!

First, stir a generous spoonful of the pesto into your cold pasta.

Then chuck in everything else! It's really that easy.

Chop everything up into nice bite-sized pieces. I recommend doing this with the cherry toms too. I know they look prettier whole but trying to spear a cherry tomato with a fork is quite tricky!

The last thing to go in should be any herbs and salad you want to include as you don't want to bruise them by stiring them round too much. I've gone for chives and because of this I haven't used any onion. That would be a bit overwhelming!

As you can see, my chives are almost flowering. If the flowers had been open I would have definitely thrown a few of those in. Not only do they look super pretty in a salad, they are scrummy!

 

All that is left to do is eat it!

It is great as a packed lunch to take to work and also would make a lovely addition to a picnic or possibly as a buffet option at one of the many summer BBQs I'm sure we'll all be hosting this summer here in bonny Britain (I jest of course... We'll maybe manage one BBQ which will be conducted under an umbrella)!

 

I'd love to know about any other simple lunch recipes. I'm always on the lookout for faff-free foods.

 

Pip pip, Charlotte xx