Pasta and Vegetable Salad

I love sneaking carbs into my salads. Somehow, carbs just taste so good. So comforting. So nurturing. 

Carbs in any form, I love. Mee goreng, curry mee, fried rice, claypot rice, chee yok fun, breads, buns, cakes - you name it, I want it! So every time when I go on a carb eating frenzy, I will inevitably gain some weight and my pants start killing me. 

That's when I cut back and lay off for a while. I have learnt the hard way that the reason why I put on weight so easily is not so much because of low metabolic rate or carbs, but because I am a compulsive eater. Eating more than your body needs will lead to weight gain. Logical.

But I have this very bad habit. Especially on weekends. I eat my dinner in front of the TV (which is bad) and once I am done, my mouth gets itchy. I want to eat something else. Even though I am comfortably full.

I cannot sit still until I get that cookie or cheesecake or whatever from the fridge or that packet of salted egg yolk chips/spiced nuts from the pantry into my mouth.

Then I sit happily back on the sofa and I stuff my face. And I don't stop  (even though I feel I am bursting) until I finish whatever it is  that is sitting on my lap. That's pretty bad, isn't it?

I am trying to break that habit and I allow myself a little something, say two cookies or one slice of cake and that's it. No gorging until bursting at the seams. It is working and I did make some progress with bringing my weight down.

In order not to deprive myself of carbs, I allow for small portions here and there just to satisfy that need for comfort. Some pasta (I know you see a whole lot up there) in a salad does that for me.

For this salad I tossed together some spiral pasta, capsicum, roasted asparagus, blanched broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, sliced grilled sausage and black olives with sauteed garlic dressing. 

What I love about this salad is that it can be made hours ahead and you can store it in the fridge for a few days. This is a salad that keeps me very happy because in addition to all the goodness of the vegetables (and tastiness of the grilled sausage), I get to enjoy some pasta as well.

Pasta and Vegetable Salad

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 2 cups uncooked spiral pasta, cooked to package instructions

- 1 sausage, grilled and sliced thinly

- 1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets and blanched

- 1/4 red, yellow and green capsicum, sliced

- 5 black olives, sliced

- some sauteed mushrooms

- some roasted asparagus

- some Italian parsley, finely minced to garnish

- enough Sauteed Garlic Dressing

Method :

- Put everything into a large mixing bowl and toss. Taste and add more dressing if necessary.

Note : This salad can be prepared ahead of time and can also be stored in the fridge for a few days.