Penne Pasta Salad

Independence day was round the corner... We had instructed the housekeeping staff to decorate the offices with the tri-colour flags and as always they had done a fantastic job the previous day.  While employees walked into the office, we could hear them comment " Wow!...the office looks colorful with the tri-colour flags" :)

Every year we organize some events at workplace during Independence day... It was a challenging event this year.  We organized for a Tri-Colour Salad Contest.. Invitations for the event were sent out, it was amazing to receive nominations from around 10 teams consisting of 3 members in each team... We had finally 9 teams who participated in the contest.  The rules for the contest was that the participants could use Orange,White and Green to make their salad, they could use any ingredients of their choice.

With the help of Pravin Tanpure who works at Hotel Sayaji @ Hinjewadi, we managed to get their Chef's, Chef Puran and Chef Mohit to  come to our office and judge our contest.  There was lot of excitement and enthusiasm among the participants.

One the day of the contest, around 4:00 pm the participants were ready with all the ingredients to make their salad's.  The time slot given for this contest was one hour.  They had to clean, and cut the vegetables and finally make them.   There was great team work and every member was involved in doing their bit to make the best salad!

The Chef's judged the contest and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were declared.  They also gave various tips and tricks of making a great Pasta Salad :).

All the audience were waiting for tasting the salads... I also tasted all the salads :) I loved the taste of Pasta Salad made by the team who won the 2nd prize.   I asked Madhushree Shintre one of the participant for the recipe and recently when we had a potluck lunch organized in office, I made this pasta and some Wheat Momo's and Schwezan chutney. 

One of my critics and a good friend, Armin Anklesaria (I fondly call him Bawa) at work gave me an honest opinion after tasting the salad.  He said it was awesome... but you could have added some more spices and  would have loved it with some Tuna and chicken pieces :)   

This was a pretty good pasta salad recipe. There were a couple things I changed though. I put in some lemon juice, chilli flakes and honey to this salad. Next time I will try adding the dill weed as suggested by Armin as it would give this salad a unique yummy flavor.   

So friends, enjoy this salad and do leave your feedback and comments!

Ingredients :

Penne Pasta - 1 cup

Eggless Mayonnaise

Mixed Herbs - 1/2 tbsp

Oregano - 1/2 tbsp

Carrot sliced into thin pieces (blanched) -1/2 carrot

Capsicum (Red/Yellow/Green) - 1/2 cup cut into pieces

Garlic - 2

Salt to taste

Honey - 1 tbsp

Chilli Flakes - 1 tsp

Lemon Juice - 1/2 lemon

Oil - 3 to 4 drops

Corriander leaves / Parsley

Method :

Boil water and add the Pasta and 3 to 4 drops of oil and cook well.  Strain this in cold water and keep aside.  In a bowl, mix pasta and all the veggies.  Add Mayo as per the quantity in the bowl.  Add lemon juice, chilli flakes, honey, mixed herbs, oregano and mix well.  You may adjust the spices as per your taste buds. Garnish with Corriander leaves and grated garlic. It tastes best when served chilled :)