Strawberry Avocado Pasta Salad

The Foodies' KitchenMay 24, 2016

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

In Guatemala, the heat has been very intense in the last few weeks, so a fresh salad is a welcome meal option. For this recipe, we used bowtie pasta just because we like how it looks, but you can use any other shape of short pasta you prefer. The mixture of fresh greens, poppy seeds, avocado and strawberries make this an out of the ordinary salad, maybe it sounds like ingredients that shouldn’t be mixed together, but believe us the combination is delicious. We dressed this salad with a simple balsamic reduction and added a few chopped mint leaves to the salad combination which give it a fresh flavor.

By reducing regular balsamic vinegar, it becomes thicker and sweeter, we love pouring a little over strawberries or mangoes. You only need a few minutes to reduce it, but you should keep a close eye on it as it may burn quite quickly. And, we should warn you that the smell as you cook to reduce it is very pungent, as you probably already imagined. Don’t worry, the smell goes away as soon as you stop cooking it, just get some ventilation going.

Kitty & Helga

Strawberry Avocado Pasta Salad

Recipe by Diethood
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound dry bow tie pasta
5 cups torn salad greens
1 lb. strawberries, hulled and halved
2 avocados, diced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
½ tablespoon olive oil
⅓ balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package instructions.
Make the balsamic reduction, by adding the balsamic vinegar to a very small pot. Bring it to a boil over moderate heat, turn the heat to low and stir the vinegar until it thickens up, just a little. It will become like a syrup. Don’t let it get too thick, or it won’t be pourable.
After the pasta has cooked, drain and immediately rinse with cold water to cool it off and to stop the pasta from cooking.
Add cold pasta to a salad bowl; toss the pasta with salad greens, strawberries, avocado and fresh mint.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add poppy seeds, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction; toss it all together until thoroughly combined.
If the salad seems dry, you can toss it with a bit more extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction.

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