Sep 20, 2011
I gave the original recipe as written 3 stars; but 4 stars with adjustments and additions I made to “jazz” up the salad. I boiled tri-colored rotini pasta in salted water. Chopped up some leftover rotisserie chicken and set aside. For the dressing, I used 3T low-sodium soy sauce, 2T sugar and 3T white wine vinegar. I seasoned the dressing with Hawaiian sea salt, black pepper and some fresh grated ginger. I also put about 1T of toasted sesame seeds to the dressing. Instead of veg/canola oil I used 2 T of sesame oil for flavor; and, fresh cilantro in place of parsley for another layer of flavor. Once I drained the pasta, I poured half of the dressing over it and chilled in the refrigerator for 4 hours. I tossed in fresh baby spinach, chicken and the remainder of the dressing. This needed some color and texture so I added sugar snap peas, carrots, julienned, and cherry tomatoes, quartered. I garnished with green onions, sliced, more cilantro and a generous sprinkle of sesame seeds. This was the most delicious and hearty pasta salad-perfect for a hot summer meal! The dressing has the right amount of soy sauce, sugar and vinegar-not too sweet or too tart. The pasta soaked up the dressing giving it lots of flavor. It’s a very colorful salad full of chicken, greens, vegetables and fresh herbs. The addition of cilantro, ginger and sesame oil gave this the “Asian” flavor I wanted in the salad.
—OkinawanPrincess
