My Quick Fix Dinner of Super Simple Pasta Salad

Whenever I am home alone; my dinner becomes a quick affair. It's not that our dinner is an elaborate 3 course meal everyday. But being alone doesn't make me want to spend much time in the kitchen. Hence tonight its my real quick fix Pasta Salad for dinner.

How I  made it :

Boil the fusilli pasta in salt water for 7-8 minutes. ( Any pasta can be used. I had fusilli so I used that) Don't over boil or else the pasta will be soggy.

Let it cool completely.

Cut one Red bell pepper, One tomato and One cucumber into cubes.

Mix with the Fusilli. Sprinkle some freshly chopped coriander over it.

The Dressing :

This I consider to be the real game changer in this super simple pasta salad.

Mix one tea spoon of sugar into 3 table spoons of white vinegar.
Once the sugar gets dissolved completely, add a pinch of salt.  Salt can be adjusted as per your taste.

Now add 3 table spoons of Olive oil, dry oregano and black pepper powder / or freshly crushed black pepper. Mix everything thoroughly.

Pour this dressing into the salad and toss well.

Taaa daaa simple quick pasta salad is ready.

It is the sweetness of sugar against the sourness of Vinegar and a pinch of salt that I love in this salad dressing.


 

Som Tam - The Thai Green Papaya Salad.

Here I am again..back in the kitchen. This time as a part of a facebook group event Guided Cooking - Week 1 . The recipe Thai Green papaya Salad / Som Tam. ( The Event )

Even though I like Thai Food, I really had never cooked them in my kitchen.My husband cooked Red Thai Curry and the Green Thai curry in one or two of our house parties. So when this came up, I grabbed the opportunity to start with this really simple salad.

The recipe shared was from About.com
(http://abt.cm/KemvNt)

Even though I tried and followed the recipe, there were some changes here and there while I was preparing this. Here's how I did .

Ingredients :

1 small Green papaya
1/2 cup roasted pea nuts. I used them slightly crushed.
1 cup bean sprout
Some button tomatoes. Smaller ones can be used as it is and bigger ones cut into wedges. I used 7-8.
2 Spring onions cut into thin pieces
Chopped fresh coriander
Few Basil leaves. I didnot have basil, so used mint instead.
1 Red Chilli cut into thin strips. I used 1/2 Red Bell Pepper.
1Green Chilli cut into thin strips
1 cup of blanched green beans.

Dressing :

2 Table spoon Fish Sauce
2 table Spoon Soy Sauce
2 Table spoon olive oil
Juice of half a lime.
1 table spoon honey
Little red chilli flakes.

In process

Add all the Dressing ingredients together and mix them thoroughly and keep aside.

Peel and deseed the Green papaya. Since I did not have a large grater, I used the potato peeler and knife to cut into thin ribbon like strips. This took a while, but trust me you will love the result.

Now mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing and give it a good toss so that everything gets mixed well.

Now add the nuts and toss again. If you want u can add more honey or even sugar in this stage. However mine was tasting fine so I didnot add any.

Pour some nuts, coriander and basil and serve in a bowl or plate. Ok, honestly I was slightly disappointed as the colour of the salad was not like the pictures available on web. Mine one turned slightly brownish because of the dark soy. But as they say " All's well that end's well". It did not look bad or ugly ( if I may use the word for food) at all and above all it tasted super. Husband happy and me too.

Thai Green Papaya Salad / Som Tam