weird pasta salad

I just came up with a weird pasta salad for dinner that turned out really well, so I’m writting it down before I forget what I did.

cook one box of funky shaped pasta. (I used Barilla wagon wheel looking things) till done. rinse with cold water.  set in fridge to chill

pull apart two heads of cauliflower into bite sized pieces (I’m not going to tell you how big.  Your bite sized is going to be different than mine.  You have your mouth, I have mine.)

slice one small bag of those baby carrots ( I made a mistake here and in the name of “keeping the shapes varied and interesting” I cut my carrots into little strips to contrast with the chunks of cauliflower.  Bad idea as it turns out.  The slivers and the chunks don’t like living – even temporarily – on the same fork so I ended up eating a lot of the carrots with my fingers.  Next time I’ll just slice them like a normal person)

a 1 pound of a meat (cooked) I used a turkey sausage with apples in it, but you could just as easily use chicken or even salmon.  Again, chunked in bite sized pieces

Set all that aside in a large (and I do mean large) salad bowl in the fridge.

In a mixing bowl place maybe a cup and a half of Miracle Whip (by the time I got done making the sauce the Miracle Whip taste was gone, over powered by the curry, so you might just as well use mayo or even something healthy like yogurt), and a little bit less than a quarter cup of sweet pickle relish.  Mix together. 

Now comes the “to taste” part. 

Add Yellow curry powder.  I get mine from the local farmer’s market so I can’t give you a brand name, but it is sometimes called Madras Curry.  Also add a generous blop of honey.  I think I may have used as much as a quarter cup of curry and about that much honey, but I’m not sure.

When you have your curry dressing tasting like you want it to, put the pasta into it and toss to coat.  Then add the vegetables and meat.  Chill and serve.

This was a thrown together meal from the back corners of my fridge and pantry.  You know those moments, as you are looking into your fridge, your eyes wander to the vegetable drawer and you realize “Whoops! I’ve got two heads of cauliflower and I need to do someting with them tonight!”

Thrown together or not, it got rave reviews from my studio audience……Martin and me.