Currently the only dry pasta brand I trust and use is the Great Low Carb Bread Company brand. I try to keep some of their pasta products on hand in the pantry at all times 'just in case' we get an urge for fettucine, penne, spaghetti or a dish with rotini... like this one.
When it comes to pasta salads, I make them using whatever we have on hand at the time, or whatever I feel like that day. I also sometimes take into account if I've already had a high number of carbs that day and want to leave out higher carb veggies or use fewer of them, and take into account what the salad is being served with.
Lastly is the dressing used. I always keep a couple low carb no sugar added dressings on hand, but also often throw together my own versions - either Italian or Ranch. Both bode well in pasta salads depending on what taste you're going for. The final note to that is sometimes I use mayonnaise with the Italian dressings sometimes not.
Basically you use your favorite pasta salad recipe or toss together random ingredients - but do so using low carb options.
- pasta - low carb/sugar free only
- fresh broccoli
- fresh cauliflower
- red pepper
- fresh lettuce
- cabbage shreds
- green onion
- cucumbers
- mushrooms
- cheese - mozzarella or feta with Italian or ranch
- cheese - cheddar if using ranch or plain mayonnaise
- basil
- dressing - Italian style or ranch style within your personal carb counts for the day
- black or green olives, red onion, yellow or orange peppers, fresh spinach, etc. (watch your carb counts and likes/dislikes)
Do not use high carb veggies like yellow onion, peas, corn, potato or carrots. Use just a bit of tomato if you wish - it's higher carb or some artichoke hearts (not many - higher carb).
Mix and chill. Serve cold.
I love broccoli and red pepper in my pasta salads. I'm not a fan of tomato, but we had one to use up and my husband loves fresh tomato so I added it. My feta was in the freezer but I had cheese sticks in the fridge so I grabbed a couple mozzarella sticks to cut up this time. Easy peasy. After some italian style dressing (sugar free and keto) I added some fresh basil. We didn't have any cucumbers
Here is what they look like after they are cooked. Yum!
