Pasta salad with broccoli
Pasta salad with broccoli and chicken. Combined with crunchy pine nuts and super delicious. Easy for lunch or quick dinner.
Pasta salad with broccoli
This one one of those dishes that came together out of leftovers in the fridge. I always find pasta to be the perfect vehicle for anything leftover. Well usually at least. In this case I had some broccoli leftover, tomatoes and I tend to always have fresh basil on hand.
I do try to grow it in the garden but that never seems to work. Either the snails eat it all or the weather is simply to poor to be what basil needs. Indoors usually works better but it might be my poor green fingers that keeps killing all the plants. Haha.
Easy pasta salad
Anyway, this pasta salad with broccoli did turn out pretty well so definitely worth making. It’s pretty quick to make and takes about 20 minutes. For this salad you can either bake the chicken or poach it like I did here. Both work equally well, so just pick your favorite way of preparing the chicken. I poached the chicken in water with stock cubes to give it a bit of extra flavor.
For the dressing I used a simple combination of mayonaise with basil oil and apple cider vinegar. Simple yet delicious. And I ended with a few pine nuts to sprinkle over the pasta salad with broccoli.
Technically you do not need parmesan cheese on top of this pasta recipe. You can and it will definitely add flavor. It will also work pretty well with blue cheese. The flavor combination is perfect for this as well. The pasta salad with broccoli can easily be kept in the fridge for lunch the next day. Just place in an airtight container and let it get to room temperature the next day.
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Pasta salad with broccoli
Ingredients
- 150 gr mini penne
- 250 gr broccoli
- 200 gr chicken filet
- 2 stock cubes
- 150 gr cherry tomatoes
- 2 tbsp pine nuts roasted
- Fresh basil
Dressing
- 4 tbsp mayonaise
- 2 tbsp basil oil
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Put a pot with water on and add the two stockcubes. As soon as it boils add the chicken fillet and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain and leave to cool. As soon as it is cold enough you pull the chicken apart either with your hands or with a fork.
- In the meantime you cook the pasta according to the instruction on the package and leave to cool. Cut the broccoli into small florets and briefly cook them for about 4 minutes in boiling water. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Combine penne, broccoli and the chicken in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes (either cut in half or in quarters)
- Make the dressing by combining the ingredients and mix this with the salad. Sprinkle with fresh basil before serving
Nutrition Information per portion
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Looks delicious and summery!
Cheers,
Rosa
Thanks Rosa!
Good luck with the Whole 30! And thanks for the salad — still pretty hot here, so this is most welcome.
Thanks John! I wish I could say it is hot here but right now it’s cloudy and fairly cool… So much for Dutch summer…