This is my kind of meal.
I cannot tell you how obsessed I am with this pasta salad. Well, I can try. 😉 Let’s start with the ingredients. This salad is basically a bowl full of some of my favorite things on earth. Pasta, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, basil… this is seriously heaven for me. I could not stuff my face fast enough when I ate it. (Although it probably did not help that it took me longer to photograph than I expected so I was starving by the time I could eat it.)
I love this salad not just for its deliciousness, but also because it’s simple and easy to whip up. When you can’t think of what to make for dinner on a hot summer night, this is it. You only need a few simple ingredients that you may already have on hand. If you don’t, then you can probably swap it out for something that you do have. If you don’t have cheddar cheese, use feta. No tomatoes? Use red peppers instead. This is a recipe that is amazing as is, but you can easily alter to suit your needs and it will still come out deliciously.
This salad screams summa-time to me. It’s fresh and light. For full disclosure I used frozen corn and not the summery favorite, corn from the cob. Frozen veggies sometimes get a bad wrap. What I will say is that you should read labels. You may be surprised to find that the frozen option is just as good or in this case way better. Yes, folks, the frozen corn is actually a lot tastier than the cobs around here. It’s so tasty that I want this frozen corn all the time (cooked, not frozen, though) and I even had my husband check the ingredients on the bag to make sure they weren’t sneaking in sugar or something. The good news was that the only ingredient was corn, there weren’t any weird sweet or saucy things in it. As long as I have delicious tomatoes and avocado available, I can enjoy this pasta salad well into Fall. Although once Fall arrives I’m a bit of a cliche and I crave all the typical Fall foods. I’ll take all the soups, pumpkin spices, and apple pies you have available for me. I’m not sure if I’ll be into salads but at least I’ll have the option. 😉
Corn, Tomato, and Avocado Pasta Salad Recipe
(about 6 to 8 servings)
Ingredients:
- 1 pound pasta, any short kind (I used whole grain rotini.)
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon chives, chopped
- a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- a pinch of salt (to taste)
- a pinch of pepper (to taste)
- 4 ears of cooked corn on the cob, kernels removed from the cob (I used warmed up frozen corn instead.)
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 avocado, diced
Directions:
- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, then drain it and put it in a big bowl.
- Immediately (while the pasta is hot), add the cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, chives, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Mix everything together.
- Add the corn, tomatoes and avocado and gently stir everything together again.
Source: Half Baked Harvest
