Summer is paradoxically the worst season for me to cook. You’d think that the abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs would prove to be inspiring, but seriously, y’all. It’s too flipping hot. I exist on cereal, smoothies, and home-rolled avocado sushi with the occasional salad or PB&J sandwich thrown in. Nothing real exciting there- I like it because it’s dead simple and doesn’t really involve cooking; but the flip side is that it’s probably unbearably boring for me to blog about. Seriously I have eaten avocado rolls and smoothies like every day this week.
Today my hand has been forced. I have to cook something. I’m going to a potluck and I’d better pull it together. Happily the theme of the potluck is ‘cold food’ and for a brief, utterly delusional moment I seriously considered bringing a giant platter of avocado rolls but I don’t think others are sharing my obsession so I’d probably end up in a corner eating piece ofter piece all by myself. Which now that I’m thinking about it doesn’t really sound that bad. But anyway…
I’ve made a super simple Pea and Pesto Pasta Salad. It really doesn’t get a whole lot easier than this- cook the peas and pasta and throw it all together. You can customize it to please yourself, too, since it’s really easy to throw things together and taste as you go. Easy PEAsy. Get it?
Ingredients:
1lb pasta- I used a Trottole, but a curly pasta or shell pasta would work great too
16 ounces frozen peas
6 oz pre-prepared pesto (or sub the vegan recipe of your choice)
1/2-3/4 cup Mayo (can use vegan, or reduced fat)
Splash of lemon juice
1/2 cup cream cheese (can use vegan), softened
Freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Cook pasta according to directions. An al dente finish on the pasta is best so it won’t turn to mush when you mix all the ingredients together.
Microwave peas in a covered dish with 1/2 cup of water till steaming (approx 5 minutes) stirring halfway through
Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine. Taste and adjust as desired. Want a little more cream cheese? Throw it in. More pepper? Yes, please! Want to add garlic or finely chopped red onion? OKAY!
Drain the pasta and rinse thoroughly with cold water to help cool them off. Do the same with the peas. Combine pasta, peas, and pesto sauce in a large bowl and stir to combine. Chill for at least 4 hours, overnight is even better. Serve and enjoy!
Serves 7-10 depending on serving size
Pesto and Pea Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 1 lb pasta- I used a Trottole but a curly pasta or shell pasta would work great too
- 16 ounces frozen peas
- 6 oz pre-prepared pesto or sub the vegan recipe of your choice
- 1/2-3/4 cup Mayo can use vegan, or reduced fat
- Splash of lemon juice
- 1/2 cup cream cheese can use vegan, softened
- Freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Directions:
- Cook pasta according to directions. An al dente finish on the pasta is best so it won’t turn to mush when you mix all the ingredients together.
- Microwave peas in a covered dish with 1/2 cup of water till steaming (approx 5 minutes) stirring halfway through
- Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine. Taste and adjust as desired. Want a little more cream cheese? Throw it in. More pepper? Yes, please! Want to add garlic or finely chopped red onion? OKAY!
- Drain the pasta and rinse thoroughly with cold water to help cool them off. Do the same with the peas. Combine pasta, peas, and pesto sauce in a large bowl and stir to combine. Chill for at least 4 hours, overnight is even better. Serve and enjoy!
- Serves 7-10 depending on serving size
I like your Pesto and Pea Pasta Salad, and we love having meatless Mondays ourselves because it is so much healthier not to eat meat every day. I usually do not eat meat twice a week! So we have meatless Monday and Friday!
We always add peas tp macaroni and cheese. It gives iot some color and a sweet taste. Our kids don’t even realize that it is a bit healthier.
Wow I love the idea of using pesto, cream cheese and mayo together – this looks amazingly good, good enough to break down and cook!!!
At first, I thought the pasta was cheese tortellini! I would throw those in too!