Sweet & Spicy Apricot Chili Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
Servings: 10-12 (tip: halve or quarter recipe for a family dinner or meal prep)
Est. Calories per serving: 311-373
- 6c. Kaslo Sourdough Pasta’s Classic Macaroni
- 1 package Spread’em Kitchen’s ‘The Delight’ Cashew Cheeze Block
- 1c. Little Creek Dressing’s Asian Apricot Dressing
- 2c. Pitted, halved apricots (extra ripe to lessen the tartness)
- 1/2c. Carrots
- 1/2c. Snow peas
- 1/2c. Celery
- 1/4c. Slivered almonds
- 8 Dried apricots
- 2-3 chili peppers (optional)
- Assorted chili peppers (optional garnish)
- Pea shoots (optional garnish)
Instructions:
- Bring a medium-sized salted pot of water to boil, and cook Kaslo’s macaroni according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cool water, and strain thoroughly. Pour into a tightly sealed food safe container, and refrigerate. For best results, cook your pasta the day before. This handy trick gives your noodles time to ‘firm up’, and allows your dressings to better enrobe those delicious pasta noodles without soaking right in.
- Next, slice and pit apricots, and dice into bite-sized pieces. Wash and chop snow peas into thirds. Chop carrots into matchsticks, and celery into 1/2 inch pieces. Finely dice dried apricots into tidbits, and set all ingredients aside until ready to assemble.
- ***if you wish to add a spicy kick, dice up a few chili peppers to add to the pasta. Alternatively, bring in a separate container and allow guests to add to their pasta if they wish. The peppers are optional for this dish, especially if feeding tiny bellies!
- When you are ready to assemble your salad, toss pasta, apricots, peas, carrots, dried apricots, The Delight cheeze, and the dressing together. If taking on a picnic, bring along the pea shoots, chili peppers, and slivered almonds in a separate container.
- Before serving, garnish pasta salad with the pea shoots, peppers, and almonds.
Serve, and enjoy! Your guests will LOVE this zesty twist on the classic picnic side dish. You can refrigerate any leftovers up to a week afterwards (use your best judgement), thanks to it’s plant-based ingredients!
