Lettuce Wrap Pasta Salad

I would like to go ahead and declare myself the Pasta Salad Queen.  I totally dig me a pasta salad…especially for lunch!During the summer, I typically make a pasta salad and then eat on it several days in a row.  I’ll take it in my cooler to the pool, eat it on the patio if we’re home or even add it as a side dish to our supper.  Pasta Salads are the perfect blank canvas for everything but the kitchen sink.

For this one, I took my favorite flavors from a lettuce wrap and turned it into a pasta salad.  Yum!

This recipe will serve four as a main course or six if you’re using it as a side dish.  If you like your pasta salad a little “saucier”, you can double the sauce ingredients.

Shopping List
1 pound of a short cut pasta
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 a cup Hoisin Sauce
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 (8 oz) can of sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 cup of raw cashews
1 red bell pepper, chopped
about 8 green onions, chopped
3 cups of fresh spinach leaves, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Bring a pot of water to boil over medium-high heat.  Once boiling, drop your pasta and cook until just shy of al dente (about 4 minutes).  Immediately drain your pasta water and then run cold water down on top of the pasta.  Rinse with cold water and then drain.  Reserve your cold cooked pasta.

In a small bowl, add in your chopped garlic.  Next, whisk in your Hoisin and Soy Sauces.  Set aside.

Add your water chestnuts, cashews, chopped bell pepper, onions and spinach leaves to your pasta.  Next, drizzle your sauce down over everything and toss together.

To toast up your sesame seeds, add a couple of tablespoons of seeds to a dry skillet and toast over medium-high heat for about a minute.  Garnish pasta with toasted sesame seeds.

Cover and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

I keep this in the fridge at least three days and munch on it as the days go by.  If you want your cashews and sesame seeds to stay nice and crunchy, you can leave them out and then just garnish with them each day.

All I need now is my sunscreen, a pool and my friends.  Lunch is served!