Grilled Summer Pasta Salad with Garlic Crostini

Summer is full of delicious fruits, vegetables, and grains. Grilling them in any season brings summer to mind and enhances the sweetness of the produce. Use a grill pan (or an outdoor grill) if you have one for this Grilled Summer Pasta Salad recipe from Everyday Vegan Eats by Zsu Dever, but if not, a skillet will work just as well, although the grilled flavor will be missed. Use gluten-free pasta and bread to make this gluten free.

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Grilled Summer Pasta Salad with Garlic Crostini

Summer is full of delicious fruits, vegetables, and grains. Grilling them in any season brings summer to mind and enhances the sweetness of the produce. Use a grill pan (or an outdoor grill) if you have one, but if not, a skillet will work just as well, although the grilled flavor will be missed. Use gluten-free pasta and bread to make this gluten free.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword grilled vegetables, Pasta Salad

Servings 4 servings

Author Zsu Dever

Ingredients

• 3 cups fusilli or rotini
• 4 small yellow squash or zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch slices
• 5 whole scallions
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 cups ripe cherry tomato halves
• 1 cup roasted corn kernels
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 4 (1/2-inch) slices French bread or gluten-free bread
• 1 small garlic clove

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain, cool, and return to the pot. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the squash, red bell pepper, and scallions with 1 teaspoon of oil. Season with salt and black pepper and toss to mix.
3. Grill the vegetable slices over medium heat on an out- door grill, in a grill pan, or on an electric grill until tender, about 4 minutes per side. The scallions need only to be grilled for 2 minutes per side.
4. When the vegetables are tender, cut them into bite- sized pieces and add them back into the large bowl. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn, basil, lime juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, and the reserved pasta. Toss well to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning using salt and black pepper.
5. Toast the French bread slices. Rub a garlic clove half on the warm toast. Serve the crostini with the pasta salad.

Recipe Notes

From Everyday Vegan Eats by Zsu Dever. ©2014 Zsu Dever. Used by permission from Vegan Heritage Press