Asian Pasta Salad

As Delicious As it is Pretty

This Asian Pasta Salad is a refreshing change from your usual summer pasta salads. Made with rotini and mini wonton dumplings, this pasta salad has unique taste and texture. The recipe calls for a poppy seed dressing, but you can also use a Asian Vinaigrette or Peanut Dressing to spice things up. Fresh veggies like red onion, edamame, peppers ,and peas add vitamins and nutrients.

This will be the hit of the Summer!

A New Idea

I’ve been thinking about this Asian Inspired Pasta Salad for a few weeks now and I spent some time sorting out the recipe in my head before actually creating it. This pasta salad needed to be slightly sweet and have super crunchy vegetables, but I wasn’t sure about the rest.

I didn’t decide all the ingredients for this recipe until I was actually in the store. I spotted the creamy poppy seed dressing that I used in this and built the rest of the pasta salad around it.

This can often be a good strategy for creating new recipes. Start with an idea, see what main ingredients you can find, and then choose other ingredients that compliment it.

Finding All The Ingredients

I came up with the idea to add mini chicken and cilantro wontons to this recipe but I did have to go to a Trader Joe’s for those, because they are the only store that I know of that carries the mini version.

If you do not have access to a Trader Joe’s, you can omit them from the recipe or you can use the larger wontons or even pot stickers that are found in the frozen aisle of a lot of grocery stores. I have even found them at the dollar store,

This Asian Inspired Pasta Salad was a big hit with everyone, even Mister Tipsy’s Dad who isn’t usually a fan of trying ANY new foods. To be honest, he didn’t love the shelled edamame but he did eat it and secretly I think he enjoyed trying a new veggie.

This Asian Inspired Pasta Salad is a fun twist on your traditional pasta salad. I love to make a big batch of any kind of pasta salad on the weekends in the summer and we have it to snack on or have with lunch all week. What I liked most in this recipe were the veggies I chose to use in it.

These included:

• Sugar Snap Peas
• Seedless Cucumber
• Green Onions
• Purple Onions
• Mini Tri-Colored Peppers
• Frozen, Shelled Edamame

Tipsy Tip

When cutting up our veggies for any pasta salad, make sure they are all cut to a similar size and shape. Meaning, if you’re going to slice some veggies, slice them all. If you’re going to dice some, dice them all.

The similar texture and shapes will make the salad so much more enjoyable to eat.

The other ingredients that you will need for this recipe are:

• 1 Box of Tri Color Rotini Noodles
• 1 Bottle of Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
• 1 Bag of Mini Chicken and Cilantro Won Tons from Trader Joe’s

Tipsy Tip

If you do not have access to a Trader Joe’s you can leave out the mini wontons. Use the larger wontons or pot stickers for this recipe if you cannot find the minis. Adjust the cook time if using the larger ones. Omit the creamy poppy seed dressing if you’re not a fan and use a soy based ginger vinaigrette instead.

The steps to making this recipe are super easy.

Instructions:

1. Boil your pasta according to package directions, drain, rinse with cold water, and cool completely.
2. You can add your mini wontons to the pasta when it is cooking for the last two minutes or you can cook them separately for two minutes in boiling water, drain, rinse and cool.
3. Chop all your veggies into uniform, bite sized pieces. I think the diced veggies go better with the rotini pasta. I did slice my peppers because they were mini peppers. If I were using large peppers I would have diced them as well.
4. Thaw the edamame and add to the veggies.
5. Toss all the ingredients together and combine well. Let it sit covered in the fridge overnight.

This Asian Inspired Pasta Salad is perfect as is. Not only is it delicious to eat but it is as equally delicious to look at. To me it looks like summer in a bowl.

Serve it as a complete meal or with some grilled chicken. I have to warn you that if you make this for a party they are going to ask you to bring it every time!

Yield: 12 Servings

Asian Pasta Salad

Print

This Asian Pasta Salad is a refreshing change from the usual Summer pasta salads. Made with rotini and mini won ton dumplings, this pasta salad has unique taste and texture. The recipe calls for a poppy seed dressing, but you can also use am Asian Vinaigrette or Peanut Dressing to spice things up. Fresh veggies like, red onion, edamame, peppers and peas, add vitamins and nutrients. This will be the hit of the Summer.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup, Sugar Snap Peas, Diced
• 1 Seedless Cucumber, Unpeeled, diced
• 6 Green Onions, Sliced
• 1 Cup Diced Red Onion
• Mini Tri-Colored Peppers, approximately 1 cup, diced
• Frozen, Shelled Edamame about 1 to 1.5 cups
• 1 Box of Tri Color Rotini Noodles, boiled al dente, rinse with cold water
• 1 Bottle of Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing (approximately 16 ounces)
• 1 Bag of Mini Chicken and Cilantro Won Tons from Trader Joe’s (about 16 mini won tons, I also find them at the dollar store)

Instructions

1. Boil your pasta according to package directions, drain, rinse with cold water and cool completely.
2. You can add your mini won tons to the pasta when it is cooking for the last two minutes or you can cook them separately for two minutes in boiling water, drain, rinse and cool.
3. Chop all your veggies into uniform, bite sized pieces. I think the diced veggies go better with the rotini pasta. I did slice my peppers because they were mini peppers. If I were using large peppers I would have diced them as well.
4. Thaw the edamame and add to the veggies.
5. Toss all the ingredients together and combine well and let sit covered in fridge overnight.
   

BLT Pasta Salad

If you are a pasta salad fan like we are, try my Tangy Tomato BLT Pasta Salad. It is one of the most popular recipes on The Tipsy Housewife. As long as we’re on the subject, here is a great recipe for a BLT Dip.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. I will leave a few clickable links to some other of my most popular salad recipes below. If you make any of my recipes, post a picture to social media and tag me on Instagram @thetipsyhousewife and on Facebook @tipsywife. You can also find all my recipes by giving me a follow on Pinterest!

Thank you and as always, happy eating!

Love, Tipsy