If you are in a hurry to have dinner on the table and want it to be easy, I have a recipe for you. I stopped by my grocery store at 2:00 in the afternoon with no ideas for dinner. I grabbed a 20 oz bag of cheese tortellini from the cold case, a package of mixed Italian antipasti from the deli, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, some cherry tomatoes and a red onion. I had some Olive Garden Italian dressing at home to season it all.
The Italian antipasti mix is kind of the key ingredient for this salad. Most deil sections in the grocery store will have something similar, either at the deli counter or in the packaged food section. The antipasti mix usually contains marinated olives, peppers, mushrooms, and some kind of cheese. It is a great addition to a salad and doesn't even need to be chopped up.
When I got home I put on a pot of water to boil and cooked up that tortellini. It only takes five minutes to cook. I drained it and rinsed it with cold water to prevent further cooking.
I added the ingredients shown in the top photo, dusted the top with dried parsley, seasoned pepper and seasoned salt. It was cooling in the fridge by 3:00 PM and just right at 6:30 when we wanted to eat dinner. It was a great vegetarian meal. We had leftovers the next night and used them as a side dish alongside a piece of grilled fish.
What main dish salads are you enjoying this summer? Nobody wants to be cooking at 5:00 when it is 95 degrees outside. A little advance planning and your dinner can be ready when you want it without a kitchen meltdown!
5 Responses
Oohhh this looks very yummy 😋 I have a variety of cold salads for summer I like to make. One is Southwestern Corn and Bean Salad- it has corn, a variety of canned beans, onion, bell peppers, cilantro, cheese, tomatoes and a Mexican dressing. Right before serving I add fresh avocadoes and a dollop of sour cream. It’s great with corn chips and lasts a few days.
A can of cooked chicken, slices of fresh apple, dried cherries, and maybe nuts if I have them. Mix up and serve with chopped lettuce and slices of cucumber. I like to use Skinny Girl honey Dijon dressing with this.
I’m stuck on an Orzo salad recipe that is also easy. Cook the orzo, drain, then spoon over fresh baby spinach. The hot orzo wilts the spinach. From there you can add whatever you like, olives, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes. I use white wine vinegar but Olive Garden dressing would work too. Summer salads are the best!!
Yum! I’ll be there with my fork in hand!😉
I mix tricolor spiral pasta, chopped red onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, chopped carrots, chunks of sharp white cheddar & Wishbone Italian dressing for a quick cold summer salad. It’s good all by itself or as a side dish.