Tortellini Salad with Tomatoes and Peas

This is one of my standard pasta salads for potlucks or parties. It’s vegetarian and so good! Don’t skimp with the dressing because the tortellini soak up a lot of dressing. I estimated the dressing amounts, so you just need to taste for yourself.

Step: 1

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook tortellini in boiling water until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Step: 2

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook peas for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Step: 3

Combine cooled tortellini, cooled peas, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, chives, and parsley in a bowl.

Step: 4

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and pepper in a little bowl; the dressing is supposed to taste sour. Pour over tortellini salad and mix well. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Taste before serving and season with salt and pepper, if necessary.

Per Serving: 452 calories; protein 18.7g; carbohydrates 54.6g; fat 19.5g; cholesterol 51.1mg; sodium 694.5mg.

The most obvious way to choose a side dish is to look at your main dish (pasta, chicken, seared tofu) and pick more different. If you’re cooking pasta, go for a simple healthy dish . Making steak? Go for more light. If you’re making stir-fry with rice, it must not a best idea to also make a rice salad.

This also can make to cooking process . You don’t want to overcommit your oven by making to do list three dishes at once in there, or be rounding four pans on the stovetop . But sometimes you can made a dish do double-duty .