Greek Pasta Salad

I don't eat pasta salad very often, but sometimes I crave that light and bright easy to eat lunch that is packed full of flavor. I love the combinations of ingredients that a basic pasta salad can bring, and this greek pasta salad is packed to the gills with fun flavors.

This is a great lunch to bring to work, add the eggplant after a little warming in a toaster oven and if it needs a little brightening after a few days of leftovers add a squeeze of lemon and you will have a delicious lunch. The beans keep me full, the pasta keeps my craving for carbs satisfied and the easiness to eat can be had outside on a park bench or at my desk. This basically sums of a great lunch, flavor, ease and fun.

A few ingredients in this one that I just absolutely adore. Numbero uno is mini eggplant. These lovely ladies are from my mothers garden. If you are buying them at the store, look for skinny small eggplants that are the same size so you can broil them easily and evenly. If not, sliced eggplant will work just as well. 

Pepadews are another ingredient that really shine in this. The pickled peppers originally from South Africa are seriously my favorite item in the antipasto section of whole foods, or currently are my obsession. A bite before dinner, topped on a falafel, they mix well with most Mediterranean and middle eastern cuisines nicely. 
 

The last special ingredient here is the olive taupenaude. If you don't want to buy or make a whole batch, get some kalamata olives from the antipasto section and chop until a paste, you will probably need about 6-10 olives.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cooked macaroni

1 tbs olive tapenaude

10 peppadews chopped

1/4 cup crumbled feta

1/4 red onion chopped

6 oz canaloni beans rinsed

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

4 tbs olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tbs capers

4 mini eggplant

salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

This recipe starts with pre-cooked macaroni or pasta, so if you haven't already, prep your pasta and let it cool (so it doesn't cook the ingredients). Also here is where you want to prep anything like your own olive taupenaude if you don't keep some around in the fridge like I do.

Cut your eggplant down the long-way and prep a baking sheet with parchment or aluminum foil for easy clean up. Then sprinkle salt over each side. Let them sit for a few minutes and start the oven to the broil setting. While the oven is heating you will see the eggplant sweat a bit. This helps in having them cook down and be super yummy. Place them in the broiler for around ten minutes - depending on the heat of your oven and the closeness of the eggplant to the top heating element.

Keeping an eye on the eggplant, chop your ingredients for the salad like the pepadews, red onion and parsley, and drain and prep ingredients like the cannelloni beans and the capers. Add all ingredients to a bowl reserving a little parsley and extra feta for garnish. Toss and set aside.

Remove the eggplants from the oven and let cool until they are able to be chopped. Chop so they are bite size. To serve add salad to bowl and place the roasted eggplant right on top, sprinkle with a little extra feta and parsley and serve.