Gluten Free Spinach Pasta Salad

Hey everyone! It's somehow already May, and this month I'm participating in a blog hop showing a love for pasta, called:

#Pastalove

Before I was diagnosed with Celiac's I used to eat tons of pasta. While in college I think I treated it as a separate food group...little did I know how much it affected my day-to-day health. So once I was diagnosed, I'll totally admit it was difficult to remove breads and pasta from my diet. That's why I'm thankful for gluten free rice pasta when I have a craving for pasta. Even then I think I'm now down to only 1-4 (gluten-free) pasta based meals out of the month. That's why I love to make delicious pasta dishes to satisfy cravings.

The recipe I'm sharing today is a Gluten Free Spinach Parmesan Pasta Salad with Carrot and Bell Peppers. It combines a brown rice pasta with fresh, raw spinach, carrots, and bell peppers. The dressing is a healthy, simple blend of olive oil, Parmesan, garlic, and lemon juice. Add freshly ground pepper and thyme to the salad and you'll get a light and fresh salad that's perfect for a warm summer day. Best part is that it takes the amount of time to cook the pasta!

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients:


1 cup uncooked gluten free brown rice swirl pasta
1 carrot
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 cup spinach
3 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper

Steps
Prepare the pasta per package's instructions, only cook for 2 minutes less than suggested, to al dente.


While the pasta is cooking, julienne the carrot and bell pepper. Chop the spinach.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, juice, garlic, cheese, thyme, and salt and pepper.

Once the pasta is cooked, rinse it under cool water until pasta is cooled. Drain extra water from the pasta. Combine the pasta, veggies, and dressing in a bowl, and serve!

This month I'm co-hosting #pastalove with a group of awesome food bloggers, so please check out their websites below. Also, feel free to add your favorite pasta recipes to the blog hop listing below in the month of May, and share with #pastalove hashtag! I hope you enjoy #pastalove!

Your hosts for this month’s #PastaLove:

Astig Vegan | Richgail | @AstiVegan

Badger Girl Learns To Cook | Kimberly | @BdgerGrl
BigFatBaker | Erin | @bigfatbaker
Bon À Croquer | Valerie | @Valouth
Cake Duchess | Lora | @cakeduchess
Elephant Eats  | Amy | @ElephantEats
Hobby And More | Richa | @betit19
Mis Pensamientos | Junia | @juniakk
No One Likes Crumbley Cookies | TR | @TRCrumbley
Oh Cake | Jessica | @jesshose
Rico sin Azucar | Helena | @ricosinazucar
Simply Reem | Reem | @simplyreem
Soni’s Food for Thought | Soni | @sonisfood
Teaspoon of Spice | Deanna | @tspbasil
That Skinny Chick Can Bake | Liz | @thatskinnychick
The Spicy RD | EA | @thespicyrd
The Wimpy Vegetarian | Susan | @wimpyvegetarian
Vegetarian Mamma | Cindy |@Vegetarianmamma
You Made That? | Suzanne | @Youmadethatblog
Vegan Yack Attack | Jackie | @VeganYackAttack