Pasta salad with green soybeans and balsamic vinegar dressing | v + gf

When I cooked and photographed this pasta salad a couple of days ago, I got a special feeling in my body. Or maybe it was more like a though, I don’t know. Anyway, I just felt that ”I’m so done with this”. Not the cooking, styling or photography. Of course not. But the light summer dishes. Even though this pasta salad is super delicious, I felt that I’m done with the salad bowls, the cold dishes. I’m desperately longing for stews, warm breakfasts and drinks (matcha latte, where are you?), and cozy mornings with candles on my desk.

It’s not that I’ve shared that many summer recipes here on the blog. Not a single ice cream recipe, despite this extreme heat we’ve had in Sweden. Oops! Most of my recent recipes have involved potatoes, I just realized that when I scrolled through my latest blog posts. I guess I just don’t feel inspired to cook during the summer months. We mostly eat salad bowls filled with different veggies, beans, grains, and seeds. I mean, how many of those can you share before everyone’s bored to death? You get what I mean.

So when I cooked this pasta salad, I kind of decided that – no, from now on, it’s autumn. Then the weather went like: ok, let’s have 30+°C for another couple of days ? I guess I’ll just have to experiment with some cold breakfast recipes for a while. Oh, and that’s another thing I came to realize when I scrolled through my latest post – I’ve shared waaay too many savory recipes in a row, and way too few breakfast recipes. I’ll try to mix up things a bit from now on. Plus I need to improve my breakfast game big time. A bowl of plant-based yogurt topped with muesli + a toast just doesn’t do it for me any longer. I have a pretty good excuse though – a simple breakfast like that is the most convenient thing to eat when you live in a small cabin with no blender, no freezer, no water (due to the heat our well dried out) and only 2 stove plates on your stove. But, I have to catch up now that we’re home, to say the least.

Enough about my autumn dreams and over to this (last?) summer recipe on the blog. It’s actually my mum’s recipe, she’s had it for ages, but I begged to have it so that I could share it with you. It’s a really simple pasta salad, but the dressing is just spot on. I tried to use another vinegar once and it ruined the entire dish. So, promise me to stick to the recipe, ok?Like all pasta salads, it’s perfect for family dinners, picnics and lunch boxes (in case you’ve started working again and need inspiration). So, let’s check out the recipe, shall we?

Pasta salad with green soybeans and balsamic vinegar dressing

serves 4

400 g chickpea fusilli
100 g black olives
15 cherry tomatoes
70 g baby spinach
250 g green soybeans
1 red or yellow pepper

Dressing

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of fresh black pepper

To serve

Tzatziki (click for recipe)
Fresh bread or seed crackers (click!)

Directions

1. Add balsamic vinegar and the spices to a small bowl. While stirring, add the olive oil and then the chopped red onion. Stir and set aside.
2. Prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the package. When done, remove the excess water from the pasta and add the dressing. Stir carefully to combine. Let cool at room temperature.
3. Chop the bell pepper in small pieces and the cherry tomatoes and olives in halves.
4. Add the chopped bell pepper, tomatoes, olives, the soybeans and the baby spinach to the pasta and stir to combine.
5. Serve the pasta salad with tzatziki and bread and enjoy!