Sweet Broccoli Pasta Salad

Sneak Peek at a Pasta Salad from this weeks Pasta Salad Week Series

Have you ever had that broccoli salad with the sweet dressing? You know the one, it usually has raisins, sunflower seeds, cheddar cheese? Yea, that one!

I was sitting around one afternoon craving that dressing, vegetable combination. But I wasn’t quite in the mood for that salad. I was in the mood for a pasta salad. The wheels got to turning and I began experimenting with the idea of creating a version of that in a pasta salad.

In the end I opted to leave out a few of the ingredients, raisins, sunflower seeds and cheese. However, if you so choose to add them into yours I would totally understand. I might do so in the future as well. On this particular occasion though, they didn’t seem to fit.

This pasta salad is a blend of broccoli, cauliflower bacon and onions with a sweet vinegar dressing that will have you day dreaming about dinner. I even whipped up another batch of it for a party I was throwing and it got rave reviews by attendees. Too bad I couldn’t remember to take a picture of the final product either time! ACK!

Sweet Broccoli Pasta Salad

Author/Source:

Tricia @ Onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1.5 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 cup bacon, cooked & diced
• .725 cups onion, diced
• 8 oz of pasta (I used bow-tie but you can use any type)
• .5 cups mayonnaise
• .5 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar

Directions:

Boil water for the pasta. When water is boiling, add pasta (take special note to set the timer for the pasta but set it for 3-4 minutes BEFORE the pasta is due to be done). A few minutes (3-4) before the pasta is done cooking add the broccoli and cauliflower to the pasta and water.

Drain pasta/broccoli/cauliflower and place in a large bowl. Add in bacon and onion. In separate small bowl mix together dressing ingredients (mayonnaise, sugar, cider vinegar). Pour over pasta salad and mix well. Chill for several hours and serve.

Freezing Directions:

Follow directions as written above but instead of pouring dressing over the pasta salad, place it in a pint freezer bag and seal. Place pasta salad mixture into a gallon freezer bag and place sealed pint freezer bag inside of gallon bag and seal. To serve: Thaw all bags, mix together and serve.

Servings: 6-8

This Post will be linked at:

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace
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• Tuesdays at the Table with All the Small Stuff
• Delicious Dishes at It’s a Blog Party
• Tip My Tuesday at Tip Junkie
• Delectable Tuesday at Home Sweet Farm
• Dr. Laura’s Tasty Tuesday at Dr. Laura’s Adventures

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.