Pasta salads are one of the very easy and convenient mini meals that are appealing to children and adults. Pasta, of course, is the main player in the game. Most pasta salads are creamy and heavy. I like my pasta salads light and so you’ll find no creamy dressing holding the salad together. And, somehow I find the pasta salads are usually made with larger pasta. I found tiny bow-tie pasta that is ideal for soups. I began with the intention of making soup for lunch, but ended up with a pretty pasta salad, complete with green peas, cranberries, crunchy walnuts, and a very simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice.
The tiny pasta with peas and ruby-red cranberries will surely appeal to children. Put this beautiful bowl of pasta salad in front of kids, and I’m sure they will want to try it. Well, even if the kid(s) in your house doesn’t feel tempted to dig in, you should try it. It is light, delicious, and healthy too! Half a cup of frozen peas has only 5% of your daily value of sodium. Peas a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, thiamine (B1), iron and phosphorus. As pulses, they are rich in protein, carbohydrate and fibre and low in fat which is mostly of the unsaturated kind. Cranberries are full of antioxidants, which protects cells from damage by unstable molecules called free radicals. The health benefits of cranberries include prevention of urinary tract infection, lowering cholesterol, and cancer prevention.
Ingredients I used:
- 1/2 cup of your favorite pasta (I used tiny bow-tie pasta)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Freshly ground black pepper
Few simple steps:
- Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and keep aside.
- Cook peas in boiling water for about 3 minutes and set aside.
- Mix the olive oil and lemon juice with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper until well combined.
- In a bowl, toss the pasta, peas, cranberries, walnuts, parsley and mix well.
- Pour the dressing and let the salad rest for some time until flavors are well combined before serving.
