Lemon Pasta Salad

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After all the cold and freezing temperatures we have had recently, this week we saw a surprising warm up. The weather was almost spring like, so what did I do to celebrate? Other than using the opportunity to go for long walks that I missed a lot these past few weeks, I also made a light summery lemon pasta salad. The idea was to recreate a dish I remember having in a  restaurant once, and I put together ingredients that I thought would have been used in the original recipe. The bad news was that this was not exactly what I was looking for,  and the good news....this tasted pretty good too and I am looking forward to making this many more times in the spring and summer. I thought the earthy taste of celery and the light citrusy taste of the lemon provided an interesting contrast in flavors and the spice from the crushed chilli flakes added the right hint of spice without making it spicy. 

Before moving on to the recipe I just wanted to share a tip I picked up from my mother in law. Just before extracting juice from a lemon, place the lemon (uncut) on a flat counter or a flat surface and with the palm of your hand exert gentle pressure and roll the lemon a few times. Then cut the lemon and proceed to extract the juice as usual. This makes it easier to juice the lemon and yields more juice from the lemon. Try this tip the next time you use a lemon, it really does make a difference :-)

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Ingredients and Method to make Lemon Pasta Salad

250 gms (8.8 oz ) of whole wheat spaghetti  (half of a regular pack of spaghetti) (can be substituted with equal quantity of angel hair pasta too)

1 large carrot grated

2 stalks of celery cut very fine

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of 1 small lemon (or to taste) (see notes)

handful Italian parsley (cut fine)

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Crushed red chilli flakes (according to taste)

salt according to taste

Cook spaghetti as per manufacturers instructions and drain and keep aside.

In a large bowl add grated carrot and cut celery and mix together.

Add cooked spaghetti to this and mix well.

In a separate bowl add olive oil and juice of one lemon,salt according to taste and Italian seasoning and give it a good mix.
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Pour this mixture on the pasta  + vegetables and mix well.

Add crushed red chilli flakes as per taste and mix again.

Garnish with Italian parsley and serve cold.

Serves approximately 3

Notes

In case you do not plan to use red chilli flakes, you may need to reduce the amount of lemon juice slightly maybe use half the quantity

You can also use other types of multi grain spaghetti or even plain regular spaghetti for this dish.

I am sending this pasta off to Its a Vegan World - Italian being hosted by Vaishali

Since this pasta got created entirely in my kitchen this one also is off to the Original Recipe Event being hosted by Lore