Recipe: Summer Pasta Salad

Depending on where you live you may be starting to enjoy some warmer temperatures and spring weather! Cooking along with the season changes is a great way to draw inspiration. During the springtime, you may find yourself moving away from roasting veggies or adding them to a soup, but perhaps not quite ready yet for summer salads. Here is where a veggie filled pasta salad comes in! This one is a favorite. A great thing about it too is that it’s very customizable and doesn’t take very strict measuring - you add from the heart with this one! It can also easily be accommodated for certain dietary restrictions by substituting or removing certain items. Tortellini Pasta Salad:

• 1 package tortellini cooked according to the directions (let cool)

• Baby spinach

• Olives

• Artichoke hearts

• Red onion

• Cucumber

• Chickpeas (another bean of your choice could also work well such as another white bean)

• Fresh tomatoes or sun dried tomatoes

• Cheese cubes or mozzarella balls

• Salami or pepperoni

• Italian dressing

The next (and only step really) after deciding what you want to add is throwing it all in a large bowl or container and mixing it together. Besides preparing the tortellini, there’s very little preparation for any of the other ingredients; many of the items come in cans or jars. A pasta salad can also be used as a side dish to your spring meals such as grilling up a protein and serving this with it. Additionally, it can serve as a meal on its own or even a yummy quick snack! Just prepare, keep refrigerated, and enjoy however you wish until you polish it off and are already planning your next batch!