Start of Summer Pasta Salad

Apparently today is the official start of summer.  DC misses that memo every year and starts a bit early, but I’ll take that over a long winter any day.  Summer means flip flops every day, outdoor eating and sunshine after work.

Summer also means delicious produce: beets, zucchini, tomatoes, and asparagus to name a few. Usually I’m a salad-for-lunch kind of gal, but lately I’ve been needing heartier meals.  Especially on Mondays when I’m recovering from a big workout weekend.  So tonight I made this delicious pasta salad.

Start of Summer Pasta Salad
Ingredients (for a whole lot of servings):

• Salad:
• 1 pound of whole wheat rotini
• 2 large tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 2 large broccoli heads (cut into florets if you want)
• 1 zucchini, cut lengthwise into strips
• 2 ears of corn, husks removed
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
• Dressing:
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp of maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Garlic Gold Nuggets (or mince a clove of garlic)

Directions:

1. Turn your grill onto medium heat (you could also roast your veggies, but in summer I like to utilize the grill as much as possible!)
2. Cook pasta according to directions.  Rinse with cold water and place in the fridge to cool. 
3. Coat the tomatoes, broccoli and zucchini with olive oil and a dash of salt.  (Optional: spray corn with olive oil spray).
4. Grill the vegetables.  Each of these veggies should take about 10-15 minutes on the grill (flip once).  You’ll know they are ready when they have a nice char going on. 
5. Meanwhile, make the dressing by combining all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
6. Once veggies are done grilling, place them in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.  Remove and cut the corn off the cob, and cut the tomato and zucchini into bite size pieces. 
7. Toss the vegetables with pasta, dressing and feta cheese.  Enjoy!

I’m not calculating the nutritional information for this one because I don’t know the number of servings.  All I know is that I’m definitely set for lunch for the rest of the week.  And Neil’s lunches.  And maybe our dinners.

I had never grilled broccoli or tomatoes before, but I loved how they tasted.  Shout out to Mark Bittman for yet again teaching me a new cooking technique.