Recipes: 5 Ingredient Pasta Salad (Low Fat)

 

Flickr Photo Credit: Moria

When I need a fast, quick, low fat summer meal with lots of zesty flavor, I go for this basic pasta salad. You can flex this recipe and the amounts of every single ingredient to suit your personal tastes and the amount of people you are serving.

Ingredients: tri-color rotini, canned and drained black olives (either pitted, sliced or chopped), thawed frozen broccoli flowerets, fat free zesty Italian salad dressing, and one of my favorite products of all time, turkey pepperoni.

Before I move on to the directions, variations and tips, can I just say this: There are VERY few products in this world that make me want to jump up and down and sing zippity-do-da-day. This one does. The only company I’ve ever seen make it is Hormel. It comes pre-sliced in a resealable pouch. It has over 70-75 percent less fat than regular pepperoni, and in my opinion, kicks regular pepperoni’s arse to the curb . . . and back! It is so much more flavorful, not greasy at all, and gives you access to numerous recipes that might have previously been too high in fat. For example, this pasta salad, on pizza, tucked in with a grilled cheese, and many others I’m sure.

OK, now on to the salad. Boil the pasta and drain. Dump in the thawed broccoli, olives and turkey pepperoni slices. Dump the bottle of fat free zesty Italian dressing (more than one bottle if you are making a giant batch) in with the mixture and toss to coat.

Possible add-ons: red pepper flakes, grated Parmesan, or chopped fresh Italian herbs.

Variations: try using a different pasta, or experiment with different vegetable, meat and dressing combinations.

This salad is great to make for a large party, or on a hot Sunday afternoon to have at home with lots of extra to take for lunch during the week. It’s one of our favorite summer time savers.