Even though grilling is quintessential to summer eating, I find that pasta salads are equally synonymous with summer gatherings. Whether it’s a barbecue, a picnic, or a potluck, there’s always a pasta salad handy to round out your plate. A lot of people try to avoid mayonnaise based pasta salads when the weather is warm and turn instead to lighter versions using vinaigrettes and salad dressings.

T.Lish provided participating bloggers with their three flavors of vinaigrettes: Asian Sesame, Chipotle, and Sweet Garlic. As you can tell from the blog post title, I used the first flavor for a pasta salad. The Chipotle was a fan favorite when we had friends over for wings (and I served up some Garlic Hot Wings along with a couple other flavors). The Sweet Garlic is my personal favorite and have tossed it on haricot vert for a simple side dish.

There are many veggie add-ins that would work with the Asian Sesame vinaigrette. I was really hoping to add baby corn to my salad but my grocery store didn’t have any. Broccoli, snap peas, cucumber, and carrot would also work. You could even turn this pasta salad into an entree by adding some cocktail shrimp!

Asian Sesame Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 C uncooked rotini pasta
• 3/4 C frozen shelled edamame, thawed
• 1/3 C diced red bell pepper
• segments from 1 1/2 – 2 mandarin oranges
• 1/2 C Asian Sesame Vinaigrette
• juice 1/2 – 1 mandarin orange

Steps:

1. Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.
2. In a bowl, toss together veggies, mandarins, and cooked pasta.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together vinaigrette and mandarin orange juice. Season to taste with S+P. Add to pasta salad and toss to combine. Keep cold until ready to serve.

Today is the last day to enter our giveaway and be sure to check out the other bloggers who posted more summertime recipes today:

Thank you to #HotSummerEats sponsors BenBella Vegan, Caribeque, Casabella, Gourmet Garden, Intensity Academy, Not Ketchup, Out of the Weeds, Pirate Jonny’s, Quirk Books, Spicely Organics, T.Lish , and Voodoo Chef for providing the prizes free of charge. These companies also provided the bloggers with samples and product to use for#HotSummerEats without additional compensation. All opinions are my own.