When I tell my friends/relatives that I like to eat brown bread/bun, museli, tuna etc; they tend to give me a weird look and ask how do you manage to eat them. There is generally a misconception that healthy stuff and taste doesn’t go hand in hand. I should say it doesn’t apply to all healthy stuff though I know some people who eat it, irrespective of its taste. I believe am not included in that category, I prefer healthy stuff, provided it gives some treat to my taste buds as well.
Pasta is liked by many, mainly because of the creamy sauce and cheese in it and hence its usually considered as a junk food. For a change, you can make something healthy with the pasta, without compromising on the taste. I was introduced to this salad by my mother in law. This is very refreshing especially for summer time since the dressing is made of yogurt.
- Pasta – 1 cup
- Vegetables – 2 cups*
- Yogurt – 14 – 1/2 cup
- Olive oil -2 tsp
- Mustard powder/paste – 1-2 tsp
- Sugar – 1 tsp
- Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
- Salt
Cook the pasta in 2 cups of water with 1 tsp olive oil & salt. Drain the water completely & let it cool.
Beat the yogurt well and add 1 tsp olive oil, mustard powder/paste, sugar, pepper powder & salt. Combine well. Add the cooled pasta and veggies. Mix well so that the pasta and veggies are coated with the yogurt dressing. Refrigerate for 2 hours, serve chilled.
For the healthier version, use brown/organic pasta and no/low fat yogurt.
* You can use any veggies that you like, though I strongly recommend capsicum and celery since it gives a special flavor. I have used carrot, cucumber, capsicum, spring onion, celery & lettuce.
You can see other low fat/healthy recipes here
Update on 25th Feb 2013: I made pasta salad recently with the addition of black olives and some Italian seasoning. I used red and yellow capsicum to make it colorful. Also for the dressing you can use a combination of mayonnaise (eggless mayo will do) and sour cream. Another dressing option is fat free mayo and fat free cream cheese (full fat version is also great). You can mix and match the dressing and ingredients to suit your taste preferences.
Update on 16/08/09: Below is the picture sent by Annu, one of my readers, who has tried out this recipe. Thought of sharing it with you :) Thanks a lot Annu for trying this recipe and also for the picture :)
