Spicy Pasta Salad

Light, fresh and simple spicy pasta salad makes a great go-to summer side dish. It’s definitely a crowd-pleasing salad that is quick to make and scrumptious to eat.

Here’s its recipe you don’t want to miss out on!

Health Benefits

Pasta includes carbohydrates which boost energy levels and help to sustain them for a longer period of time.

The pasta salad is quite a fulfilling meal.  It also has a low Glycemic Index (GI) so it doesn’t cause sugar in the blood to rise quickly.

Pasta salad is classically made with the rich tomato sauce and various spices and herbs. The cooked tomato sauce is an excellent source of antioxidant – Iycopene – which providers cancer fighting properties.

Ingredients

water: 4 1/2 ltr

penne pasta: 1 packet

tomato juice: 275 ml

olive oil: 1 1/2 tbsp

red wine vinegar: 1 tbsp

chili powder: 1 1/2

paprika: 3/4 tbsp

salt: 1/2 tsp

ground black pepper: 1/4 tsp

freshly grated parmesan cheese: 50 g

frozen sweet corn: 75 g

handful chopped fresh coriander

chopped spring onions: 1/2 bunch

diced red pepper: 1/2

diced green pepper: 1/2

skinless and boneless chicken breast fillet: 1

How To Make Spicy Pasta Salad

1. Boil water in a large pot. Add a little bit of salt in it.
2. Once the water is boiled, add Penne pasta into the boiling water.
3. Once the pasta is fully cooked, drain the water. Rinse the pasta under cold water until no longer hot. Set it aside.
4. Stir in the tomato juice, olive oil, chili powder, paprika, salt and black pepper together in a large sized bowl.
5. Toss them with the drained pasta. Refrigerate it for 2 to 4 hours to cool.
6. Meanwhile, cut the chicken fillet into small pieces. Evenly coat them with the salt and pepper. Set it aside.
7. Combine the Parmesan cheese, sweet corn, coriander, spring onions, red pepper, green pepper, and diced chicken pieces in a bowl. Now toss them up with the chilled pasta mixture.
8. Cover and refrigerate for at least overnight before serving.

Trivia

• Salad comes from the Latin word “herba salta” or “salted herbs”.
• The world’s largest salad was made in Romania in 2012, weighing up to 41,998 pounds.
• The first reference to pasta in a cookbook was made in 1154 B.C.
• There are over 600 types of pasta, and some of them have over 1300 names.

The three most famous types of pasta are: penne, spaghetti, and macaroni.