Pasta Salad Kebab
A PASTA salad can easily be deconstructed into your kid’s favourite foods: pasta and cheese. Just build kebabs with the salad ingredients. The skewers might even persuade everyone to finish the veggies in the lunchbox. If you prefer, make a big batch of pasta salad with all of these same ingredients. It lasts in the refrigerator for days. The individual ingredients also last for days, so you could mix and match.
KEBABS OR SALAD:
510g refrigerated cheese tortelloni (large cheese tortellini, see notes)
226g small Mozzarella balls
1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 bell peppers, any colour, cut into bitesize pieces
¼ cup pitted olives
SALAD DRESSING:
¼ cup white wine vinegar
1 tbs granulated sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp dried dill
½ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp table or fine sea salt, plus more to taste
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
Once cooked, rinse the pasta in a colander under cold water.
KEBABS:
Make 1 to 2 skewers per serving, using bamboo skewers. For each skewer, alternate approximately 3 tortelloni, 2 Mozzarella balls, 3 olives, 3 bell pepper pieces and 3 cherry tomatoes.
The kebabs are ready to serve, or can be lightly dressed (see notes).
PASTA SALAD:
Halve the Mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes and olives.
In a large bowl, whisk the white wine vinegar with the sugar, Italian seasoning, dill, garlic powder and salt. Then whisk in the olive oil.
Once the pasta is done, shake off as much water as possible and add it to the large bowl along with the Mozzarella balls, bell peppers, tomatoes and olives.
Toss gently to combine and serve.
Serve with green grapes or veggie chips.
NOTES:
The kebabs, salad and dressing can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Tortelloni are large tortellini found in the refrigerated section in supermarkets.
Frozen or dried tortellini are much smaller and shaped in a circle, so they don’t work well on skewers.
Use ¾ cup store-bought vinaigrette (such as Italian) in place of the homemade dressing.
Leave the kebabs undressed or brush them with vinaigrette.
TOTAL TIME:
20 minutes 6 to 8 servings