# Pasta salad or other options during HOT weather



## blissful (Jun 29, 2010)

One of the goals this season with our household is to bring down costs and keep our food choices cool during the hot weather.

We will be having more cold pasta salads, rice salads, rice and beans, and cold potato dishes along with the proteins (venison, beef, pork, chicken, fresh fish we've caught, shellfish, sardine, tuna) and vegetables (from the garden and fresh produce from local markets.)

By adding and making sure we have a meal that includes carbs--rice, potatoes, beans, pasta, we are bringing down our food bill.

I'm looking to buy bulk rice and beans to add to the pantry and find recipes that will carry us through the fall--September. I'm considering buying from Walton Feed, any other good sources of bulk grains/rice/beans?

Our first pasta salad this year:
macaroni with veggies (garlic scapes, carrots, onions, celery-sauted, cooled, add mayo and season.)

Our second pasta salad this year: we took with us fishing-no refrigeration, hence no mayonaisse.
Macaroni and sliced hardboiled eggs, basil ground with olive oil (from last season) onions, radishes, celery, all chopped fine, with a vinegar and oil dressing seasoned with S&P. (it was a three hour fishing trip)

I'm planning on a pasta salad with a lemon and oil dressing with parmesan cheese, with some pepperoni or sausage pieces and cheese chunks in a small dice. Vegetables as available.

A cold rice salad, with tomatoes (fresh), green onions (fresh), oil and vinegar dressing.

Beans and rice w/seasoning and some fresh lettuce and tomatoes in tortillas, sour cream and/or cheese as a condiment.

Potato salads: mustard and mayo base, also, a ricotta and vinegar and oil base dressing. 

Other cold salads through the garden season: gazpacho--soup or salad (sp?), cucumber salads with sour cream or vin and oil, lettuce salads (multiple types of lettuce from the garden) vinegar and oil or cream based dressings, bread salads (w/tomatoes vinegar and oil), marinated veggie salads-legumes, green beans, pea pods and peas, zuchinni, cucumber, tomato, pepper, egg plant, onions, carrots, beets in many combinations depending on the season and what is producing at the time.

Do you have a cold salad recipe with carbohydrates you'd like to share? I would like to have some variety through our 'hot' season. Thank you in advance for all your creative help as always.


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## BreezyCooking (Jun 29, 2010)

blissful said:


> I'm looking to buy bulk rice and beans to add to the pantry and find recipes that will carry us through the fall--September. I'm considering buying from Walton Feed, any other good sources of bulk grains/rice/beans?
> 
> Our second pasta salad this year: we took with us fishing-no refrigeration, hence no mayonaisse.
> Macaroni and sliced hardboiled eggs, basil ground with olive oil (from last season) onions, radishes, celery, all chopped fine, with a vinegar and oil dressing seasoned with S&P. (it was a three hour fishing trip)
> ...


 

Re: Sources - around here both our WalMart & Costco carry bulk rice & beans.  The brands are well-known ones & the quality is excellent.  Do be careful that you don't go overboard & buy too much though - the quality of these items do deteriorate over time & can also get "buggy".
 
Re: your "no refrigeration - no mayonnaise" rule -  I hope you realize that you cut off your nose to spite your face by including the hard-boiled eggs in your salad.  While neither mayo or eggs are suitable for non-refrigeration circumstances, mayo would have been far safer than the hard-boiled eggs.  You set yourself up for the same food poisoning risk with those unrefrigerated hard-boiled eggs, unless you were using an insulated cooler of some type.
 
Re: more salad ideas - two of my favorites are "Salad Nicoise" (tuna, cooked potatoes (sometimes made into a French potato salad first), cooked green beans, hard-boiled egg - all lightly dressed with a vinagarette; & "Salad Lyonnaise" (frisee lettuce with diced cooked bacon, a poached egg, & either a warm bacon dressing or a vinagarette.  Both of the above have LOTS of different versions - just do a web search & choose one with ingredients that appeal to you.


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## Janet H (Jun 29, 2010)

One of my favorite salads is a black bean and feta salad with cilantro.  I sometimes add pasta bows to it as well.

For dressing I use salsa mixed with olive oil and a little lime.  You could play with the proportions.  I've always intended to try this with cooked barley in stead of pasta - but haven;t gotten around to it yet.  Here's the ingrediant list:

Cooked black beans
crumbled feta
fresh cilantro
Diced tomatoes
Diced cukes
Bow ties, barley or just leave out.

Dressing:
Salsa (I use the green stuff)
Olive oil
lemon or lime juice
cracked black pepper

toss it all up and chill.  Serve as a main dish salad on lettuce or as a hearty side dish for grilled meat.


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## merstar (Jun 29, 2010)

Two of my favorites:
THAI-STYLE PASTA SALAD (I triple the dressing):
Thai-Style Pasta Salad Recipe

CURRIED COUSCOUS SALAD WITH DRIED CRANBERRIES
Curried Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries Recipe - MyRecipes.com

I also do a tuna/white bean salad with celery, black olives, sweet onion, tomatoes, peas, red bell pepper, corn, green beans, fresh herbs, etc., in a lemon/balsamic vinaigrette.


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## blissful (Jun 30, 2010)

Thank you for the replies and suggestions.

We put some macaroni salad together with shredded cucumber, radishes, carrots, some chopped onion, pea pods (from the garden last season) and tomato pieces.

Tonight for half the salad, we made a thai dressing with peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, sesame oil, and vegetable oil, it was really good. Thank you for the recipe merstar.

The other half of the macaroni salad we made with greek yogurt, garlic, salt and some mayo, very nice too.

We had venison steaks on the grill with them. 

I have some green salsa frozen from the tomatillas last year, I'll give that a try very soon Janet. Thank you again, ~Bliss


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## Wyogal (Jun 30, 2010)

We went hiking today and I brought a mac salad in the cooler. Actually, commercially prepared mayo and m.whip is quite safe; more so than home made mayo. I didn't use eggs. I used a high fiber, whole grain (but not brown, it's light colored), extra goodness pasta... you can find a couple of different brands with the regular pasta. Today's salad included crisp celery, green onion, red pepper. Dressing was super easy: m whip, big squirt of catsup, smaller squirt of mustard, some sugar, celery seed. I mixed everything together in one bowl. It was quite yummy after the hike. For dessert we had some fresh pineapple that I cut up and put in plastic ware.


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## merstar (Jun 30, 2010)

blissful said:


> Thank you for the replies and suggestions.
> 
> We put some macaroni salad together with shredded cucumber, radishes, carrots, some chopped onion, pea pods (from the garden last season) and tomato pieces.
> 
> Tonight for half the salad, we made a thai dressing with peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, sesame oil, and vegetable oil, it was really good. Thank you for the recipe merstar.



You're very welcome.


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## babetoo (Jun 30, 2010)

i am going to do pasta salad for a bbq at my son's house on sunday. so far am using the multi colored pasta, peas, maybe carrots , corn, couple hard boiled eggs, asparagus, going to use ranch bacon dressing. oh and sliced black olives, and very finely chopped purple onion. sounds yummy to me.


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## gadzooks (Jul 1, 2010)

Made a nice brown Basmati rice salad today. About equal parts bbr and sprouted green lentils (2 C. each), a chopped green bell pepper, a chopped onion, sea salt to taste AFTER adding some Bragg's liquid aminos and a half C olive oil, chopped cilantro, and a dash of Tabasco, plus the juice of a small lime. Tossed all and chilled in the fridge. Served in whole wheat wraps with a dollop of fresh tomato salsa. Tasty!


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## blissful (Jul 1, 2010)

thank you both for the recipes! 
I'm still working on buying the rice.
I'm about macaroni-ed out, Made some granola and greek yogurt today to have with strawberries. 
Gads where you been lately?  Thanks again.


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## gadzooks (Jul 2, 2010)

AWOL...roasted red bells go nice in that bbr/sprouted lentil salad, too, btw. If you wait 'til the lentils have about a 1/4" tail, they're more tender than on the first day they've sprouted. Higher protein/carb and protein/fat ratio, as well. Nice to be back.


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## missM (Jul 2, 2010)

Will be trying some of the recipes even though it is freezing here. Thanks
Earlier in week stayed with Eldest on way back from Darwin and she made a most delicious salad with pears, basil, red onion, peppers etc.  
Decided to try something similar when I got home to find that son-in-law and grandson had arrived for a visit.   
Mine was nothing like Eldest's except for the pears....she is an absolute "master" cook)  However it wasn't bad and I used just what I had on hand.
Poached 3 pears cut into quarters in brown sugar and water until just firm, microwaved a bunch of broccolini cut in small lengths & green beans snapped, added red pepper, finely sliced red onion, 2 cloves of finely crushed garlic, half a cup of roasted cashews and tossed it all with lime juice, a good dash of white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. (acidic dressing was balanced with the sweetness of the poached pears.) 
Served with herbed rissoles (meatballs)


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