I am not a huge fan of raw vegetables. You could probably tell that by now from all the baking that I do. I love to eat fruit and I love vegetables in soup, casseroles, stir-fry’s or any other dish that I can load them into. Eating salads or sitting and munching on raw vegetables is not something that I would consider a favorite past time of mine.

Luckily Kesa and Autumn love raw vegetables with Catalina dressing. I have to admit that I am not the greatest example in the vegetable-eating department. Me, I love my healthy baked goods, tons of oats, fresh fruit, nuts and seeds. I would also be completely satisfied to have my own maple tree to tap syrup out of any time I please.

For lunch today I was going to make a soup and bread, but I decided to make something different for a change. Instead of cooking vegetables into a dish, I made a lighter meal, pasta salad with all the different colors of the rainbow! It got the kids excited and grabbing out every kind of vegetable we had in the fridge. I have to admit that all the color had my mouth watering as well.

Rainbow Vegetable Pasta Salad

A great way to get in a few servings of vegetables and eat all the colors of the rainbow! Have your kids help make the salad and teach them about the different colored vegetables and why we need to eat them to be healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 (300 g) box whole wheat bow tie pasta
• RED – 1 large tomato, chopped
• ORANGE -1 small orange pepper, diced
• YELLOW – 1 small yellow pepper, diced
• GREEN – 1/2 long English cucumber, diced (1 cup)
• BLUE/GREEN – 1 head broccoli, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
• PURPLE – 1 small red onion, sliced (1/2 cup)

Red Wine Vinaigrette –

• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of black pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add the bow tie pasta and cook 10-12 minutes, until tender. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables and whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients in a liquid measuring cup. Drain the cooked pasta and run it under cold water to cool. Place the pasta and chopped vegetables in a large serving bowl. Drizzle the vinaigrette on top of the pasta salad and stir to coat. Serve or refrigerate for later.

I got at least two servings of vegetables eating this dish. A girl could get used to this!